


Dark Times

by Sar61_Sanz6



Series: Dark Sanses, Dark Times [1]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: AUs, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Bittybones (Underfell), Alternate Universe - Bittybones (Underswap), Alternate Universe - Bittybones (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Crosstale | XTale (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Digitale (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Dreamtale (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Dusttale (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Errortale (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Freshtale (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Horrortale (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Tailoredtale (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Underhell (Undertale), Female Reader, Multi, Multiverse, Nightmare's Gang - Freeform, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:48:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 26,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24096850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sar61_Sanz6/pseuds/Sar61_Sanz6
Summary: You are a Dark Sans/Nightmare gang fan. You love fanfictions were Nightmare and Error are the ‘role models’ to the others and Fresh is a good guy, not a parasite. You think the ‘dark family’ dynamic view of the ‘hated’ Sanses is a better and much more justifiable way to see things, rather than accept ‘because they’re insane’. That excuse does not float your boat.You don’t necessarily hate Ink, Dream and the Light Sanses, you just want them to see the bigger picture of things. See both sides of the story, as judges should. Even then, you do not like others being ridiculed and bullied because of things outside of their control. That is a big no-no. Every curse you had about them was one long overdue.Somehow, you end up waking in Nightmare’s castle. You DO NOT FANGIRL. Nope, nada, no way, absolutely not. … … You totally did.
Series: Dark Sanses, Dark Times [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1915342
Comments: 215
Kudos: 652





	1. You Fangirl

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Restricted Work] by [LazyRainDancer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LazyRainDancer/pseuds/LazyRainDancer). Log in to view. 
  * Inspired by [「THREADVERSE | TAILOREDTALE」](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12504832) by [VeryTrulyYours_Dolos](https://archiveofourown.org/users/VeryTrulyYours_Dolos/pseuds/VeryTrulyYours_Dolos). 
  * Inspired by [He Cares](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13275441) by [Tereox_X](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tereox_X/pseuds/Tereox_X). 
  * Inspired by [Ghost Love](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17463386) by [RedRoseofDestruction](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedRoseofDestruction/pseuds/RedRoseofDestruction). 
  * Inspired by [The Bitty House](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22886086) by [BlamefulSea](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlamefulSea/pseuds/BlamefulSea). 



> Tell me what you think in the comments! Leave kudos if you like this story!

_It’s cold_

  
_Why are you cold?_

  
_Your body feels like it weighs a ton._

  
_It’s like a gazillion needles are poking you._

  
_Did your body fall asleep?_

  
_Breathing is so hard._

  
_Was there a weight on your chest?_

  
_What is going on?_

  
_Where is the sound?_

  
_The cars outside the windows?_

  
_The fan’s annoying clickity-clicking?_

  
_The tv news shows you never watch but for some reason keep on out of laziness?_

  
_What are you laying on?_

  
_You’re not in your bed._

  
_Is there a wind under you?_

  
_Are you falling?_

  
_Your back hits something. HARD._

  
_Your breath is knocked out of you._

  
_You hear shouting._

  
_You’re so tired._

* * *

You hear shouting. Are the neighbors at it again? What is this? The thirtieth time this week? Get a divorce already.

  
‘I swear. For two people ‘engaged’ those two scream at each other more than an elderly couple. We’re in college, not high school. Grow up, girls.’

  
You turn your head, leaning into the soft and fluffy pillow. Wait…

  
‘My pillows are never this soft. Well, not after using them for ten months. Did I crash at a friend’s room last night?’

  
You think it over in your tired head. Then come to a startling realization. You can not remember last night. The last thing that comes to your mind is your science professor’s warning of an important exam tomorrow. Then your mind blacks out. Like the memory is suppressed. Thinking hard, trying to remember what happened after that, gives you a skull-splitting headache. You groan.

  
“I think she’s waking up!”

  
That did not sound like anyone you know. And your body feels weird. Did you run a marathon? While wearing a suit of armor? And weights?

  
**“Good. Now maybe we can get to the bottom of this.”**

  
That voice… that one was familiar but you couldn’t place it.

  
You’re tired, but you need answers. With great effort, you open your eyes, blinking a few times to get used to the harsh light that blinded you. Seriously, it was like your eyes hadn’t seen light in days.

  
“Fractured skulls… what happened?” your voice is scratchy, it itches like crazy and painful to talk with. It feels like you swallowed sandpaper.

  
The ceiling above you is… made of stone? With cracks between the black-ish bricks. You move your hands to lift yourself up and notice your ‘bed’ is made of wood. Old wood. The pillow was soft though.

  
‘What in Dreemurr’s name?’

  
Your back is stiff, as is every muscle in your body, but you manage to hunch over and look around you.

  
That’s when you pause.

  
Because to your right, standing just three feet away from you, glaring, is a very familiar figure.

  
He’s tall, dark, literally, he’s covered in a pitch-black tar-like substance, with eery blue eyes.

  
You know him anywhere.

  
“Oh, my, angel.” yeah, that sums it up.

  
“human. you better start talking.”

  
You turn your head thirty degrees to the left, and your jaw may as well be on the floor.

  
“OMA.”

  
Four more figures are glaring at you. But you don’t care or properly register the glares.

  
Because…

  
One of them has a single glowing red eye and an ax in his hand.

  
One has black tear stains, a glowing red target on their chest, and a knife.

  
One has his face shadowed by a jacket hood, a dusty knife, and purple in one eye.

  
The last one was dressed in black and white, has a red scar under his right eye, and a golden heart locket.

  
“OMA...” your dreaming… right?

  
**“Human.”** you turn your head to the darker voice, still in shock, **“How did you get here? Do not lie to us.”**

  
You open and close your jaw a few times, wearing down the dusty one’s patience, “answer us, human!”

  
Your brain finally functions enough to get words out, “You… are… but… how?... I’m dreaming… right?...”

  
Yeah, that was not what they wanted.

  
“Human,” the black and white figure summoned a large, sword-like knife, “you are trying our patience.”

  
Mind: short, skeleton, knife, red scar, red eye-light, dressed like a ninja, gold heart locket, large knife-sword. Processing… processing… registered.

  
“... HOLY GASTER! YOU’RE CROSS!” you point at him with your eyes wide. That was not the best thing to say in this situation. Logic has not been returned to the front of your mind where it belongs.

  
Cross blinks with the others while the darkest one furrowed his eyes and you keep shouting.

  
You point at the ax-wielding one, “AND YOU’RE HORROR!”

  
The one to his right, “YOU’RE KILLER!”

  
The one covered in dust, “YOU’RE DUST!”

  
And the one glaring at you with growing suspicion that will likely lead to your death, “AND YOU’RE NIGHTMARE!!”

  
You turn your head this way and that, looking all over the room you’re in and find out its a dungeon. Your laying on a cot with nothing more than a pillow and the window with bars reveals that the moon is high, indicating it’s not morning, but night. Noted.

  
“By Toriel, I’m in Nightmare’s castle...” you said that out loud, mostly to yourself but your audience heard you.

  
**“Yes, you are...”** Nightmare glared at you, his voice getting lower, **“and you fell through a portal into our living room. Now, I’ll ask again… how did you get here?”**

  
“A portal?” you don’t remember anything about a portal. Other than what you know in fanfictions and fan comics. “Welp. That’s not ringing any bells. When did I even get here?”

  
“You’ve been asleep for the last three hours,” Cross answered, glaring bitterly, “you passed out right after you fell on ME.”

  
“I fell on Cross and passed out? I totally missed a perfect hug opportunity.” you whispered mostly to yourself but the filter between your brain and your mouth appears to be missing.

  
All of the skeletons in the dungeon blink at you like you’re crazy. Which makes sense, considering their reputation both in the multiverse and online.

  
Killer asked their group question, “why would you want to hug cross?”

  
You blink at Killer like HE’S crazy, “Are you really asking me that? Cause I have a list of reasons. Do you want them alphabetically or in increasing order of cuteness?”

  
That caused a faint blush to form on Cross’ cheekbones, which did not go unnoticed by you.

  
“OMA! You DO blush purple!” you gush, turning everyone’s attention to the embarrassed skeleton.

  
“I-I’m not cute...” his eye lights turn away from you and his skull ducks into his outfit. His blush only darkens in hue and glows brighter.

  
Horror and Dust smirk a bit while Killer and Nightmare return their glares to you.

  
“you don’t have any clue how you got here?” Killer asked.

  
You shook your head and shrugged your shoulders, “Nada. In fact, I’m pretty~ sure I’m dreaming right now. Which is likely the case. Cause there is no way in infinite possibilities that fan comic characters based on a videogame can really be talking to me. This is likely a hallucination in my mind from hitting my head on something that I do not remember. Yup-a-roo, that’s the most logical explanation. Totally makes sense.”

  
The whole gang stares at you for a long moment of silence before their leader speaks up.

  
**“Well, sorry, but we’re very much real. Care to elaborate on the ‘comic characters based on a videogame’ part of what you just said?”**

  
You blink. Once. Twice. Three times. And, “You’re real?”

  
Nightmare nodded. You blink again, “I’m not dreaming?”

  
**“Yes.”** Nightmare states.

  
Mind: not dreaming… real… favorite fan characters… Nightmare and his gang… real… standing and talking… to YOU… processing… processing… information registered.

  
“OMA!” you scream.

  
All the skeletons flinch and draw their weapons and tentacles but lower them when you begin rambling.

  
“You’re THE Nightmare gang! The Dark Sanses! The yang half of balance! The strongest Sanses in the multiverse! I’m really here! OMA! What’re your favorite colors? Favorite desserts? Favorite AU? Does Error stop by? Does he visit Outertale often? Does FRESH hang out with you? Is he a fellow anti-curser? Does he censer your language? Do all of you live in Nightmare’s castle? Is there a training ground in the castle? Is the castle really in a dead AU? Do parts of the ground float around like some fic say or is it a whole AU but without people? Do you guys consider Nightmare more of a boss or a father figure? Does Horror’s brother stop by? Does Horror cook? Do Dust and Killer spar a lot? Do you two widdle? Is-”

  
**“Okay! Stop there!”** Nightmare raised a hand and glared at you.

  
You shut up and catch your breath while the skeletons glance nervously at each other.

  
“O-Okay,” Cross began, “let’s get back on topic. Nightmare asked about what you said? The videogame thing?”

  
You nodded and thought for a moment how to explain. Then decided on an introduction first, “Hi, my name is Y/N, I’m a college student of ten months and a fan of yours.”

  
You see all of them look at you confusedly and wearily. You break the news as gently as you can, “... Where I come from, Undertale, the original AU, is a videogame. People from my world have three options that can lead to different endings in the game. You can probably guess what those three options are.”

  
All of them, especially Horror, Killer, and Dust, gained dark expressions at what you implied.

  
“Welp, those options are Pacifist, where only good things happen. Neutral, where some good and some bad happens. And Genocide, where only death happens… often leading to the complete death of all monsters in the Underground.”

  
Killer darkened his expression, Dust made his eye light glow purple, and Horror gripped his ax a bit tighter. Cross looked at you suspiciously with narrowed eye sockets. Nightmare glared at you with a frown.

  
You shrugged nonchalantly, “Yup, that’s about what I expected of your reactions. What happened after is a bit different for us. You see, when some people like a game, or movie, or anything enough, they make fanfiction and fan comics of it. So… some people made their fantasies into different forms of art, be it comics, pictures, or writing, and shared them with other people. Before you ask, I don’t know who made your worlds. People that post and share their work often don’t give out personal information like their real names.”

  
Everyone was silent, you let them process what you said, considering it had to be a big blow to everything they knew.

  
You processed what was happening. You were talking to some of your favorite alternate Sanses about what you know. Pretty much making them all simultaneously be wary and afraid of you while knowing at least one of them was interested. You’re still almost 50% sure you’re dreaming but considering you usually wake up in the middle of dreams and none of them are ever this realistic, that number is going down fast.

  
**“So,”** Nightmare spoke up, **“you know about us then?”**

  
You shrug, “As much as anyone else who’s an Undertale Multiverse fan, I guess.”

  
**“Prove it.”** he demanded.

  
You frown, but complied, “You, Nightmare, come from Dreamtale, as well as your brother, Dream. The two of you were guardians of a tree that grew two kinds of fruit. One represented dreams and positive feelings while the other represented nightmares and negative feelings. As time went on, the people of your world grew to hate and despise you for the side of balance you represented. Somehow, stupidly, they believed that you were evil and all their problems would go away if you were gone. At the same time, they adored your brother, though they conveniently never told him of what they were doing or thinking of you. You attempted to prove you were just as good as your brother but that resulted in you eating many of the negative fruits you protected.”

  
You pause for a moment, seeing Nightmare’s eye widen. You continue, “That changed you physically and the process was painful, it drove you to madness. Dream only got to you by the time the process was around halfway and while his words were heard, they did nothing to stop you or change your growing insanity. You fought Dream, which resulted in the tree’s and the village’s destruction. Dream was forced to eat the last positive fruit left, but despite the increase in power, he was unable to defeat you in battle. In the end, Dream was turned to stone, though temporarily. When he did get out, and this is where things get fuzzy for me, the two of you fought again, but Dream managed to drive you out of your homeworld, and shortly after, he met Ink. you, on the other hand, fled to find a place to be your new headquarters, eventually finding a dead or empty AU with a castle and called it your base. Your insanity stage had waned over time and you began to have clearer thoughts and better senses for yours and others’ feelings. Your new form also allows you to sense great amounts of negative emotions, especially those of immense despair, grief, madness, hatred, etc. That eventually led you to your gangs’ worlds and after meeting them, you offered each of them a place to stay as long as they remained loyal to you and helped when you needed them. Is that accurate?”

  
All of them blinked at you speechlessly, especially Nightmare.

  
**“You know more about what led up to my change than my brother.”** Nightmare mumbled, amazed.

  
You shrugged again, “When you get a story in my world, people tend to want both sides. Besides, there’s a reason for people to ‘join the dark side’,” you added air quotes, “and those reasons are often understandable if people bother to have a little something called sympathy. You know, the one thing Ink can’t seem to have for his ‘creations’ with ‘bad’ AUs?”

  
Your extra air quotes and eye roll at ‘bad’ made Nightmare squint at you while the others frowned.

  
**“Do you believe that?”**

  
You blink, “About Ink’s ignorance? Or about you all having a reasonable excuse to be ‘bad’?”

  
“both.” Killer said.

  
“I believe Ink needs to grow up and see reason. Like, actually fact-check before placing blame on someone like they’re born evil.” you state, frowning at the thought of Ink playing hero while disregarding the fact that the skeletons before you were people too, “As for you all, I do honestly believe your reasons for becoming who you are are just. If the people of Nightmare’s world never bullied him, he wouldn’t have needed to ‘prove himself’. If Frisk had thought of the consequences of their actions, maybe they could have thought of a better solution to free monsters from Horror’s Underground. If Frisk and Chara had stopped their Genocides when enough was enough, then Dust and Killer wouldn’t have felt the only way out was to kill everyone. If Xtale Gaster, Frisk, and Chara had bothered to think of what they were doing to their own world, maybe Cross wouldn’t have been the only survivor of his world. And Cross’ decision to side with Nightmare does not make him a bad person, it just means he’s more open-minded and smarter than Dream and Ink.”

  
Everyone blinked. Dust and Killer glanced at each other. Cross fidgeted nervously. Horror looked at Nightmare. And Nightmare… he stared at you for a good few minutes. The silence of the cell was deafening until the leader finally spoke up.

  
The god of negativity and king of nightmares gave you a playful smirk and said, **“Guess that means you are too.”**

  
You blink, then chuckle and smile while gazing at the skeletons around you, “I guess I am.”


	2. You meet Error

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading this fic! Next chapter is up so leave comments and kudos if you like it!

You munch on some double chocolate cookies with Cross as Horror hands you both glasses of milk.

  
“Thanks, Horror.” you say, smiling.

  
He smiles back and sits across the table from you with Killer and Dust on either end of the table and Nightmare leaning against the wall nearest the hall leading to the living room.

  
Overall, Nightmare’s castle was pretty cool. It looked like one of those dark castles you saw in cartoons and movies. Dark stone everywhere, old antique wooden doors, dusty, the natural kind of course, with an eery feel of doom. The only light source in the dungeon were the moonlight coming from cell windows and a few torches, but you were a beginning college student who often stayed up late with only a reading lamp to use, so yeah, you could see pretty well in near darkness. In the main rooms though, the castle was lit with chandeliers and lamps that used to hold candles. When you asked, Dust said he had electricity set up when he moved in, the candles that originally lit the place were too much of a fire hazard. They kept the torches in the dungeon because it looked cool and it set a decent stage for scaring prisoners.

  
You were a bit disappointed with the throne room. Nightmare said he only used it when testing possible recruits so he never bothered to spruce up the room. You have a hundred ideas to make it a thousand times better. When you thought of it, you had a million ideas for the castle. The skeleton crew had clearly been living here, you can see the whittling on wooden furniture, the movies, the pillows and blankets, the books, and other things that showed the skeleton boys had moved in. But they didn’t decorate! Seriously, the castle may technically be a hideout and headquarters, but it was clearly home to these guys. Maybe you can fix that later.

  
Right now, you are enjoying chocolate treats and milk with one of your favorite and possibly the most adorable skeletons in the multiverse.

  
**“You’re taking everything well,”** Nightmare commented, **“most would be trying to find the nearest exit if they met us and you admitted to knowing our reputation.”**

  
“One of the most well-known reps there is in the Undertale multiverse.” you add.

  
**“Point being,”** he continued, **“I suspect your cooperation may involve you being a fan.”**

  
You smiled, “You guessed it Nighty! You guys are some of my favorite characters. I read a lot of different fanfictions and fan comics on you all. Plus Error, Fresh, and a few others. Most of my favorites belong to the ‘dark Sans’ category if that’s not obvious.”

  
“oh, it’s obvious,” Killer stated, smirking, “it was after you said you wanted to hug cross and called him cute.”

  
Cross blushed again as his fellow teammates chuckled. You smiled, “I’m not the only one who thinks that. Trust me, you guys have a lot of fans who think the same and more.”

  
They paused for a moment.

  
“really? us?” Dust asked, one bone brow raised with a confused expression.

  
You nod, “Yup-a-roo. Cute, adorable, handsome, cool, wicked, awesome. You guys have been called everything and anything. It just depends on which fan you ask. Some fans even love playing matchmaker with you and your alternates of the multiverse.”

  
You added that last part with a suggestive look in your eyes as you said it. They got the message and you were soon surrounded by glowing blushes. You noted that Horror and Killer shared red blushes, Dust and Cross had purple blushes, and Nightmare had a dark blue blush.

  
You wink teasingly, “And that’s one of the reasons why~.”

  
They all stuttered and looked away from you, avoiding eye contact like the plague until their blushes lessened. You giggled at that.

  
**“Alright,”** Nightmare said, blush significantly less, **“that aside, do you have any idea how you ended up here?”**

  
You shook your head, “Nope. The last thing I remember is being in one of my college classes, leaving for the next one, then things get dark from there. Can’t remember anything about seeing a portal. Other than the ones I see in fan art and read in fanfiction.”

  
You rub the back of your head, “I don’t have a headache or anything. So I don’t think I hit my head. I just can’t remember how I got here. Or what happened after I was done with college for the day.”

  
“how do we know you’re not lying? or telling half-truths?” Dust asked, playing with his knife. It made sense that he’d be the one with doubts.

  
You thought for a moment then smiled, “How about one of you bring out my soul while I retell everything I remember? With my soul out, you’d all be able to tell instantly if I’m lying, right?”

  
Everyone stared at you like you were crazy, “What?” you ask.

  
Nightmare answered, **“You just suggested we have possession of your soul. Even when you know what we do.”**

  
You shrug, “Most in the multiverse may not trust you, but I know you guys don’t kill without a motive. If it doesn’t benefit you or your goals, why do it? Ink and Dream may forget to find reason, but I don’t. And, I trust you. You’re all my favorites, more than Ink, believe me.”

  
All of them blinked at you, glancing at each other every few seconds before Horror chuckled, “you may be just as crazy as we are.”

  
You shrug again, smirking, “Yeah, let’s go with that. It’d be the best way to get Ink to not ‘save me’ if he ever sees me with you guys.”

  
Nightmare chuckled and straightened up, walking over to the table, **“Alright then, let’s get started.”**

  
You push the empty plate of cookies away and nod, folding your hands on the table and waiting for someone to summon your soul. You were a bit excited. You always wondered what your soul color or colors would be. You did hope you didn’t have a completely red soul. The last thing you wanted to do was trigger sensitive territory, especially with Dust and Killer’s histories.

  
Nightmare raised a hand as his eye glowed brightly. You felt a pull on your chest, it was kind of what you expected it to feel like but… was it supposed to sting your chest a bit? You brush that thought aside. Maybe that was a first time thing. After all, as far as you know, there was no magic in the ‘real’ world.

  
You stopped all your thoughts as you saw the heart floating in front of you. The table was deadly silent as everyone stared at your soul.

  
“Um… ” you nervously glanced around, “I’m pretty sure human souls tend to come in color. And this colorless color tends to mean a bad thing in fiction, so~... does anyone know what this means for me?”

  
In front of you is a glossy black heart. Literally, you could see the light reflecting off it. If you looked closely, there were faded, white-ish lines littering around it, it reminded you of black marble honestly. But the real kicker was the glow emanating from your soul. Deep, dark violet was radiating around your soul, making a purple fogged light around it.

  
It was concerning, but not creepy. In fact, you kind of liked it. It was pretty in its own way. Still, black souls can mean a number of bad things.

  
Could you have malice? No way.  
Apathy? Nada. You care about a lot of things.  
Hate? You can’t think of anyone or anything that you could hate enough to cover your soul.  
Heartless? Nope. You can see the good in Error and Nightmare. You had plenty of empathy.

  
A moment later, Nightmare spoke up, **“I don’t think in your case the usual meanings of this color applies.”**

  
He pulled the soul to hover above his hand, examining it. Dust stood up and walked over to his left side, gazing over it with interest.

  
**“Black souls do tend to mean a lot of dark and dangerous things,”** Nightmare explained, **“but as you know, I can sense emotions. And you have been giving off clear emotions since you dropped in. Hate, apathy, malice… none of those feelings are coming from you. If anything, your soul generally feels like a normal human soul. Besides that, the color emanating off of it is interesting.”**

  
You blink, “Purple or violet tend to mean perseverance in human souls, right?”

  
Dust nodded, “yeah, that’s right. so if we’re seeing it, it probably means that’s your main soul trait. the black just seems to be the main color we see, not necessarily the main trait.”

  
Killer tilted his skull, “so what does it mean? and what’s with the weird lines all over it?”

  
“i don’t know why it’s black,” Dust said, squinting his eye sockets, “but i think the lines may be fractures.”

  
You blink, really confused, “Fractures? But, my life was normal. I didn’t have any traumatic experiences or hard times. Sure I got stressed with exams but not enough to break down or freak out.”

  
**“What about the time you can’t remember?”** Nightmare questioned, **“There’s no telling what you went through to get here. You may not remember what happened, but anything that did happen can not be permanently forgotten. There are signs, hints that will prove that it did happen. Your mind may forget things, but your soul will always remember."**

  
You think for a moment. Nightmare had a point. Anything could have happened between leaving class and getting here. And however you got here, magic was likely involved. As far as you know, magic isn’t a ‘real’ thing in your world.

  
You nod, “Okay, I’ll buy that, considering I’ve never encountered magic, as far as I remember.”

  
Cross blinked at you, “You’ve never seen magic before?”

  
“Nope,” you shake your head, “other than in cartoons, special effects movies, and comics, I’ve never seen real magic. Any humans that do magic in my world, often are just using parlor tricks.”

  
Nightmare frowned and squinted his eye, **“Then your soul is likely not used to any form of magic, raw or concentrated.”**

  
Dust frowned, “if that’s the case, then i wonder if the magic of the portal she fell through is the cause of the fractures. the pressure of magic may have been too much for a soul with no experience with magic.”

  
Nightmare shrugged, then flicked his hand and sent your soul back. Once again, there was a slight stinging. You resisted the urge to rub your chest. It wasn’t painful, just stung a little.

  
“so, what do we do?” Killer asked, “if we don’t know how she got here, how do we send her back?”

  
Silence took over the room again. You honestly hadn’t thought of that up till now. How were you going to get back?

  
“Maybe we could ask Error?” Cross suggested.

  
You blink and snap your head towards him, “Error? As in, Error!Sans? Destroyer of Universes?! That Error?!”

  
Your grin could split your face. All the skeletons look at you with knowing smiles.

  
**“Let me guess,”** Nightmare smirked, rolling his one eye, **“you’re a fan of his?”**

  
You nod vigorously, “Oh~ yeah! He was the first Dark Sans I heard of after I got into Undertale fanfiction. I even had a poster commissioned of him fighting Ink while looking awesome!”

  
And a poster of him in the Anti-void with his strings around various souls, a blanket with him and a few dolls of Sanses of the multiverse, a few pillows, some plushies, and shirts but they don’t need to know that. Especially when you got similar stuff with all of them too. Now that you know they’re all real, does all that make you creepy? Probably.

  
**“Well,”** Nightmare shrugged, turning towards the hall, **“I’ll give him a call and ask him to come over. If anyone would have an idea of what to do, it would be him. He is the destruction half of the balance after all.”**

  
“Eeeeeee!” you squeal, causing Nightmare to smirk as he disappeared down the hall and the others ducked their skulls.

  
“you know,” Killer commented, “you have to be the only person i’ve seen get excited to meet error. most people would run to the hills if they knew who he was.”

  
You roll your eyes and reach for a chocolate chip cookie from a box Cross pulled out, “Those people are most likely the ones getting their information from Ink or Dream, or anyone close to those two. They paint a picture of Error being evil incarnate and scare others while making them believe it and don’t even think to ask the how and why. Anyone who bothered with asking would know that in everything, there are two sides. By extension, where there is life, there is death, where there is light, there is dark, where there is creation,-”

  
“-there is destruction.”  
 **“TheRE iS dEStruCtiON.”**

  
You blink as you heard how your sentence finished, and you know that glitchy, static-filled, and scratchy voice was not yours.

  
You look towards the hall, and standing in front of Nightmare was none other than-

  
**“Error, this is Y/N. Y/N, I believe you know Error.”**

  
You did not even register the smug look on the octo-skeleton’s face, all you could see was Error. He was just like the comics and fanart. His skull was black with blue tear marks, both his fibulas and tibias were red, his phalanges were black, red, and yellow, and those were the only bones you could see. His outfit was a black trench coat with the hem and sleeves turning blue, some blue string stitching could be seen here and there, and his pants were in the same condition. His red shirt was the only thing that seemed intact without stitching.

  
When you paid attention to his bones a bit more, you saw faint but visible markings. Scars, bites, healed burns, some scratches, and more. As people of the fanfiction world know, Error had been through a lot in his life, battling across the multiverse and against Ink would leave marks. It was no real surprise but it still saddened you to know Error was hurt as much as he was.

  
‘Well,’ you thought, ‘now he knows one more person who WON’T hurt him on sight.’

  
You stand up and grin happily as you walk up to Error, stopping just on the edge of his personal space, knowing that he has trust issues and haphephobia. You did not want to be like Ink.

  
“Hi,” you greet, waving a hand, “as Nightmare said, I’m Y/N. I come from a world where the multiverse is fictional and you are one of my favorite characters.”

  
Error blinked at you and you heard the muffed chuckles of the others behind you. Nightmare was just at the corner of your line of sight, and you could see his smug grin widen.

  
**“HuH,”** Error looked you over from top to bottom, then looked back at your eyes, **“NightMaRe SaiD hE foUND sOMeOnE misplAcED. hE DiDn’T sAy HOW miSPLaceD.”**

  
You shrug, “Yeah, normally that would be an opening for an ‘out of this world’ pun,” you can hear the giggles of the gang, Killer and Horror being the loudest, “but in my case, it’s more ‘out of this reality’. Since, you know, creation isn’t supposed to meet the creator. And while I never made an AU, I kinda read everything I could get my hands on when it came to Undertale AUs and the multiverse, so~, yeah, I get the feeling it isn’t a good idea for me to stick around very long.”

  
Error had a serious look in his eye sockets but still gave a smirk, **“YeAH, thAT mAY bE a PRObLEm. hOW did You gEt hErE?”**

  
**“She fell through a portal into our living room,”** Nightmare answered for you, **“landed on top of Cross and became unconscious for three hours.”**

  
“As for how I got a portal to Nightmare’s castle,” you rub the back of your neck, “I have no idea. The last thing in my memory is leaving a college class and then my mind blacks out. Then I wake up in the dungeon surrounded by some of my favorite characters in the Undertale multiverse. And as I told them,” you stick a thumb at Nightmare than at the gang behind you, “in my world, you’re all fictional, and humans don’t have real magic.”

  
Error looked at you seriously, squinting his eye sockets. It’s almost like he’s seeing right through you. You feel exposed all of a sudden and it clicks: he’s Checking you.

  
After a minute, the exposed feeling disappears.

  
**“You’RE noT LYinG,”** Error states, leaning on one leg with his arms crossed, **“sO yoUR meMORy iS eiTHer sUpprEsSed oR sOMEone OR SOMethiNG WipeD thE eVeNT frOM YOur minD.”**

  
You blink, “But, why would it need to be forgotten?”

  
Error shrugs, **“IF iT wAS a BAd eXPerieNCe, thEN thE humAN MINd wOULd naTURaLLy mAKe yOU forGET. If IT WaS aN ouTSidE sOURce, THen SOMEthinG hAPPened thAt someONE or SOMEthing DID nOt wANT yoU tO reMEMber.”**

  
“i think it may have been the first option,” Killer spoke up, “your soul has a lot of fractures, so it could very well be that whatever happened might have been too much for you to handle.”

  
You think, then nod. There was a good point to that, after all, when it came to stuff that blew your mind, you tend to overreact.

  
“So, is there any way to unblock it?”

  
Error shrugged again, **“dePenDS. soMEtimeS thiNGS wiLL TRiggER THe miND tO reMeMbeR, bUT oTHEr tiMEs iT’S uP To yoU. yOUr miND aNd sOUL mUSt bOtH bE aBLe To hANDle REMemBERing tHe eVenT. IF oNe cAN’t HAndLE iT, tHAn tHEre cAN Be negATIVe eFFecTS.”**

  
“So, I basically need time to subconsciously heal and recover from whatever happened and then try remembering whatever was bad or stressful enough for my mind to block it out.” you bluntly state.

  
Error smirked, **“eXacTLY.”**

  
“That, by extension, means I’ll be sticking around here, doesn’t it?” you struggle to keep on a blank expression while inside, you want to squeal like a highschool girl.

  
Error’s smirk widened and lopsided as he closed his eye sockets, **“coRRecT. yOU’re sMARter tHan mOSt hUManS, iT SeeMs.”**

  
You smile, “Tends to happen when you bother putting two and two together rather than wait for a simple answer to come from someone else. But, back to the ‘I’m stuck here’ topic-” you turn around to look at all the skeletons in the room, “I have a feeling that renting a motel at a different AU is shot. On account that likely every version of Undertale Sans and Underswap Papyrus is on the lookout for a clue of your presence to report to Inky and Dream. And I probably don’t have money that would be accepted anyway. Not to mention, I’d be an outcode to any Judge that glanced at me, which will also likely lead to a report to Inky. So~, the real question now is: where am I staying?”

  
Every skull turned to Nightmare, who was smirking at you.

  
**“Well, if you don’t mind staying in a dead AU, living with known murderers, and avoiding outside communication to keep Ink and Dream from being suspicious… ”**

  
You smile knowingly with a gleam in your eyes, “I already said I’m a huge fan of you guys, so being near you 24-7 will be a literal dream come true. And I planned on avoiding Squid and Dreamcatcher like the plague the second I knew where I was.”

  
Nightmare gave a rare approving smile at you, **“Then you can stick around. Just pull your weight around here, no one gets out of chores, princess.”**

  
Chuckling, you reply, “I am no princess, that’s Ragnartale Frisk, and chores are nothing thanks to my parents.”

  
Cross giggled, “Inky, Squid, and Dreamcatcher? Are those what you call them in your world?”

  
You happily answer, “Oh~ yeah, Inky and Squid are common nicknames for Ink in fanfiction and fan comics respectively, and Dreamcatcher is something I decided to call Dream. It’ll catch on one day, trust me.”

  
**“iT’s oFFiciaL, I AcTuALLy liKE YoU.”** Error stated.

  
“The honor is mine, Destroyer of Worlds.” you playfully say, winking over your shoulder.

  
This might just be the best day of your life.


	3. You Adjust

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Leave comments and kudos if you like the newest chapter!

Living in Nightmare’s castle is a dream come true.

  
Nightmare gave you a room of your own in a separate hall overlooking the dead AU that the castle resided in. Specifically, the ‘back yard’ that was sectioned off as part training grounds, part clearing, and part forest. The room was three to four times as big as your dorm room, maybe a bit bigger. You have a private bathroom connected to it, a walk-in closet, and a canopy Alaskan king-sized bed. Topped with a work desk, a wardrobe, a mirrored dresser that took half the right wall, a vanity table, and a storage chest that doubled as a bench at the end of the bed. You had a strong suspicion Nightmare purposely gave you the queen’s room of the castle.

  
The boys were nice enough to go ‘shopping’ for you, as in, they went to an AU Error needed to destroy and used their murder spree as a cover to steal stuff you needed. Thankfully Ink and Dream only got there last minute before the AU was a goner and the boys had long brought the items back to the castle without them even knowing about it.

  
Cross and Horror helped you decorate, along with Blood, Horror’s brother, who stopped by to meet you. You were happy to see the skeleton, his appearance be damned, this version of Papyrus is a thousand times sweeter than Undertale Papyrus could be. If Undertale Papyrus is a cinnamon roll then Horrortale Papyrus is a sugar skull. You happily told him some of your favorite foods and promised to cook them for him when you got the chance. Blood gave you a bone-crushing hug in return, happy to have a new friend to cook with.

  
You took inspiration from your soul for your room, plus a bit of a space theme to add to the ‘out of this world’ feeling to your current situation.

  
The large, three-person bed was placed between the two large bay windows which stopped a foot from the ceiling that also had bench seats built-in. You choose sheer purple curtains to frame the windows a bit with white pillows and black cushions for the seats. The bed cover was checkered black and purple with white standard pillows and throw pillows in different hues of violet. The bed frame and posts were all painted black with a purple Bonn headboard Cross found. The canopy curtains were cosmic galaxy-themed with blues, purples, and lots of stars. They weren’t see-through so they also gave you a bit of extra privacy.

  
All the walls were painted lilac purple except for the ceiling which you asked to be painted black with Outertale’s constellations. Error was more than happy to help with the design and in the end, it came out perfect.

  
The desk, wardrobe, dresser, vanity, and bench were all painted black with dark purple knobs, handles, and mirror frames. The bench was topped with some throw pillows in purplish blues, black, white, and cosmic designs. The hardwood floor was left as it was, safe a large circular black rug on both sides of the bed. The doors were painted white with silver knobs and you even got a door hanging with your name written on it. Killer and Dust made it as a quick widdle project and painted it purple with black and white fractured letters.

  
Your bathroom had a double sink, a built-in luxury tub, and a walk-in shower, all in pale white stone. So… you went with an ocean theme, it’s practically traditional. Nothing too much of course, some ocean bath mats, soap dispensers, and wall art was all it needed.

  
The walk-in closet was filled with enough clothes to last you forever in this multiverse. The skeletons went all-out when you gave them ideas for a new look. You were in the Undertale multiverse for crying out loud, may as well get your own signature style. You settled for something easy but changeable and good to dodge in. Hey, you never know what could happen.

  
In the end, you settled for t-shirts with leggings, topped with a wrap or mini skirt, and ankle boots with no heels. It was light, simple, easy to change around with different colors, and would not hinder you or get in the way. Boy did the guys go all out with the color options. You asked for colors in white, black, purple, blue, and maybe galaxy if they could find anything, and they did. They got your shirts, leggings, and skirts in every color you asked for and in every hue. The galaxy themed clothes? Multiple designs for all three articles of clothing. The skirts? They got both wrap and mini, but also A-line, tulip, circle, and knife-pleated. At least you could mix your style up as you pleased. Your ankle boots line the sides of your closet perfectly, most in white or black color but the boys somehow found purple, blue, and galaxy ones too.

  
Your undergarments were embarrassing to ask for. It caused Cross, Horror, and Error to blush while Nightmare, Dust, and Killer just smirked, unfazed. Everything was brought to you in pure white and with three blushing skulls and three suggestive looks.

  
The first two weeks were spent getting to know the layout and getting lost in the process multiple times. You quickly learned the castle was a maze in its own right, getting around campus on your first day of college was easier than this.

  
But, you managed to get your bearings by the end of the second week. Blood happily lets you help in the kitchen, and when he’s gone you bake a lot of chocolate sweets. Cross and Error practically fell in love with your desserts.

  
You met Fresh entering the third week and you fangirled like crazy. The poor colorful skeleton was both surprised by your obvious liking of him and confused at the reason, as well as overwhelmed by your phrasing of his looks. To summarize your first meeting: you made Fresh a blushing and stiff mess of bones.

  
Turns out, the multiverse you were in had Fresh as a normal skeleton from an AU that bullied him for his soul-shaped eye light. Ink visited his AU, talked with the locals, and one thing led to another and Fresh learned of his portal making ability in a desperate attempt to escape everything. The poor skeleton has been hopping random AUs since then and with Ink believing he’s an evil soul-eating parasite, the entire multiverse was now out to kill him.

  
Having none of that, you instantly tell him what all of his fans in your world think of him and how much he’s really loved. Fresh doubted you at first, but after bearing your soul and repeating with gusto, he believed you. When you suggested a swear jar to help curb the guys’ bad language habits, you became instant best friends.

  
Fresh was also on board with your ideas for the castle’s long-needed decoration. Fresh became your go-to person for decorative item look-out during AU raids. The man never failed you and came back with things that were better than what you expected.

  
By week six, there are rugs in the halls in black, red, or grey, raven statues placed on either side of the front doors of the castle, an elegant black amethyst bowl in the center of the dining table, silver candle holders on every side hall table, and framed photos hanging on the walls of the living room and the gang’s bedroom hall.

  
The photos were saved moments that Fresh kept in his phone and happily showed to you. Most of the pictures were so good and adorable that you practically begged Fresh to find fitting frames for each one to hang. It was a shock to the guys when they came back from a mission to find photos of good times hanging in the living room and some embarrassing moments framed in their hall.

  
Week seven, you asked the gang, specifically Nightmare, if it was all right to convert the hardly used back yard clearing into a small garden. Horror was on board, fresh food within walking distance was a brilliant idea. Nightmare agreed and the others supported the plan and they all chipped in with getting the items you needed. By week eight, a small vegetable and fruit garden was laid out and planted. You also went a bit farther with some black swan pots Cross found on a raid and planted night-blooming flowers along the stone path to the garden that was made.

  
At the end of week nine, you’ve been here for about three months. In between everything, you learned to crochet with Error, became the official pastry chef of the gang, regularly talked with Fresh and traded design ideas, and even convinced the gang to give you some self-defense training to pass time.

  
But it was the Saturday of that week that was the most special. Error presented to you a women’s black trench coat with a skirt that ended at your knees. The hem and sleeves faded to perseverance purple and it was decorated with pale white fractures exactly like the ones on your soul. It became your favorite coat the second you saw it. You now wear it as often as possible, loving how everything feels right whenever you have it on. When Error gave it to you, you hugged him without thought and thanked him a million times, he was startled and a bit shaken after, but he was glad you liked it.

  
Everything seemed perfect. You were living your greatest fantasy dream and would proudly never wake up. You can’t help but wonder what the future holds for you now.


	4. You Disappear

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter 4! Plz, leave comments and kudos down below if you like it.

You opened the oven and used mitts to pull out the bundt cake, placing it on a cooling rack before making sure the oven was completely turned off. Then, you reach in the refrigerator to pull out a mixing bowl of homemade chocolate frosting. 

Not before long, you have the cake on a black glass stand and generously icing the sweetened bread, smothering it in chocolate. 

“There,” you say as you step back to see your finished work, “done. Should be perfect to eat once the guys get back.” 

You place a dome over the cake after a couple of minutes of cooling and move the finished dessert to the dining table. Which was long decorated with a black table cloth with fading midnight blue ends, the black amethyst bowl filled with fresh apples and oranges, and midnight cushions placed at each seat. 

You step back and take off your galaxy apron. Gazing over the kitchen, you ask, “Okay… now, what do I do?” 

It is the eleventh week of being stuck in the castle and you were beginning to find a recurring problem: you quickly ran out of things to do. Every time the gang went out to strike fear into the souls of AUs and destroy them, you were left alone with little to do. Sure, you could crochet but it got lonely without Error, cleaning was always done sooner than you like, you could only bake one sweet a day after the guys came back one time to find the kitchen turned into a private bakery, and self-pampering in your private bathroom was getting old. 

You sighed, “Wish there was something interesting to do.” 

Then, you started getting a feeling in your chest. It wasn’t stinging like when your soul is pulling out. For some reason, it felt like your soul was spinning inside of you. It wasn’t unbearable, but weird and uncomfortable. You rub the spot over your soul on your chest, frowning in confusion at the sensation. 

“Maybe I should talk to the guys about this when they get back.” you think out loud. 

A second later, you find yourself blacking out, but you’re not tired. Your vision turns dark and you feel yourself falling. Soon, you’re passed out with no explanation. 

* * *

“-llo? Hello? Miss, are you alright? Please, open your eyes.” 

You heard the new voice, unable to identify it. With a bit of struggle, you managed to pry your eyes open, having to immediately blink to adjust to the bright lighting. 

“Where am I?” you ask, slowly sitting up. 

“Oh, good, you’re awake. You startled me when you popped out of nowhere, miss.” the new voice told you, “As for where you are, this is my home, though it is a bit… empty.” 

Finally adjusted to the light, you look around and see nothing but white, safe some string glowing object surrounded by thread-like wisps. Wait… 

You turn around and see the new voice, recognizing that green kimono-like outfit anywhere. 

“You’re-you-you are-” you’re stuttering, embarrassingly, in front of another one of your favorite alternates of Sans. One you didn’t think you would ever meet. 

It was Tailoredtale Sans. You read a lot of fanfiction on him and saved fanart on your phone too. He’s exactly like the pictures show. His skull has flowers in every color of the human souls. Pale blue stitch markings trail up his skull on his right eye sockets, and pink tear tracks go down his left. The kimono is green with a darker green hood and a lighter green turtle neck shirt underneath it all. Pink socks, pink obi, pink stitch marks on his hands, and a pink cloth that hangs from his elbows and wraps around his back. No slippers or sneakers, he had sandal-like shoes which you're sure are called geta in Japanese culture. Though, his eye light, the photos can do justice with the real hypnotizing effect of that pale blue iris. 

Finally finding your voice, you state, “You are Tailoredtale Sans. Nicknamed Shears. Oh, my angel.” 

Shears blinked at you and tilted his skull confusedly, “Well, I am Sans. But I’m afraid you may need to explain more. Tailoredtale? Are you addressing my world?” 

You breathe in, then exhale, and explain, “My name’s Y/N, and I come from a world where the multiverse is fictional. Every world here is made-up from someone else’s imagination and shared with people all over my world. Your world is called Tailoredtale, and your nickname when addressing this version of you is Shears, after your favorite pair. Just like how Underfell Sans is called Red and Underswap Sans is called Blueberry. Is this making sense so far?” 

Shears gazed into your eyes, then smiled, “Yes, I understand.” 

You blink, “Just like that? Seriously?” 

“Yes,” Shears happily replies, “it is not too difficult to believe in the multiverse theory, and you knew me before I even introduced myself. And nicknames would make sense, after all, if there is an infinite number of ‘Sans’ then it would be necessary, to tell them apart.” 

You blink, then smiled, “Wow, you’re taking this well. Guess the fanfiction on you being so easily accepting were true to the letter.” 

You heard the famous Shear giggle, “Fhu, hu, hu! Perhaps so. But do tell me,” he looked over you, “how did you come to this reality?” 

Curious, you looked down at yourself, having the same attire as you did before you blacked out. Dark purple leggings, black ankle boots, a white mini skirt, and under your coat from Error was a galaxy t-shirt. Everything except the apron you took off in the kitchen. At least nothing was missing. 

You looked up at Shears and shrugged, “I fell through a portal that I have no memory of seeing and ended up in Nightmare’s castle. I’ve been stuck here since then.” 

Shears blinked at you confused, “Then do you not know of the opening you fell through when coming here?” 

“What?” you ask, shocked. 

“Yes,” Shears nodded, pointing overhead, “a circular opening appeared and you fell through.” 

You looked up, seeing nothing, then turned back to Shears, “I fell through another portal after I blacked out again?” 

Shears shrugged, “It appears so, Y/N. And it seems you are stuck here now.” 

You look around the vast white, then shrug, “Welp, worse places to be stuck in, and I got to meet you,” you smile at Shears, “so it’s not all bad.” 

Shears smiled with a light pink blush, “Flatterer.” 

You chuckle, “Well, like I told Nightmare and his gang, I have a soft spot for Dark Sanses.” 

Shears blinked again and you clarified, “Dark Sanses are generally what all the Sanses who are known to kill are called. While it was never flat out said,” you gesture the lights around the empty AU, “it was clear what happened here was centered around you.” 

Shears lost his smile and you waved your hands in front of you, “You don’t have to feel bad! Honestly, people probably would have done the same thing if they were in your position, and besides, even the worst actions can be justified. I live in a castle with the greatest, bloodiest, and dustiest murderers in the multiverse, and all of them have good reasons for their actions. And in the end, it’s not actually your fault, it’s just how your AU was made.” 

You summarized the stories of the skeletons you live with. Pointing out where their actions were not entirely evil. Error was a destroyer, but he was a part of a vital element in balance. Nightmare was negativity incarnate, but people shouldn’t have pushed him or made him feel unwanted. Horror did the one thing he could to keep his brother and the Underground alive. Killer and Dust were at their limit with the genocides, of course, they were going to snap and get desperate to break free of the loop. Cross was clean, but you explained how he was treated by the ‘good’ Sanses for siding with Nightmare. He may not be accepted by the rest of the multiverse, but he was loyal like crazy to his little family. Fresh? You had nothing but sweet words for that innocent bag of bones. Slipping a rare curse or two towards Ink for being a scatterbrained numbskull. 

By the end of your explanation, Shears looked blankly at you for a time, then smiled again, “You are a unique soul.” 

You chuckle, “In more ways than one, I assure you.” 

“And what do you mean by that?” Shears curiously asked. 

“My soul is...” you trail off, trying to think of an explanation, “... it’s different. When I got to Nightmare’s castle, I had them pull it out so they could know I was being honest with my story. That’s when I found out it’s not exactly normal.” 

You pause, the silence stopping after a few seconds from Shears, “Go on.” 

You explain your soul’s black coloring, fracturing lines, and the perseverance color emanating from it. Explaining that Nightmare didn’t sense anything malice or dangerous from your soul despite the color. Then get to the part where Error met you and explained the possibility of your soul and mind purposely forgetting what made you come to the multiverse on account of traumatic or upsetting events you don’t remember. Shear listened intently throughout everything, nodding and tilting his skull every so often. 

When you finish, Shears smiled, “I do not believe you have to worry much Y/N. As many learn, some things are just meant to happen to lead you down a destined path. It could be that your being here is meant for something more.” 

You tilt your head, “But what? I’ve been stuck in Nightmare’s castle for over three months. You’d think something special would have happened by now.” 

Shears raised a finger with a knowing gleam in his eye lights, “But something did!” 

“What?” you asked, 

Shears smiled widely, “You went through a portal again and met me. Perhaps this is the multiverse’s way of saying you are going to be getting around a lot more now.” 

You thought for a moment. You did come here suddenly and out of nowhere. Maybe the portals you fell through were triggered by something? Or timed? Either way, you did just meet a new skeleton and a favorite at that. 

You shrug and nonchalantly smile, “Guess your right. It’s not like I can stay in one place forever with so many AUs in the multiverse. But now the big question is...” you gave around the void of white, “how am I getting back to the castle?” 

Shears tilted his skull a bit farther to the right, “Surely your friends have noticed your absence by now?” 

“Depends,” you think, looking up, “AU destroying and raiding can take an hour to ten from what I’ve seen so far. And the guys were supposed to be home in a few after I was done with the cake. But… finding out which AU I landed in might take time. Not to mention they’d have to be careful not to tip off Squid and Dreamcatcher.” 

“Who?” Shears asked, “Are those two of the supposed ‘good’ Sanses of the multiverse?” 

You shake your head, “Nah, those are my insult nicknames for Ink, the creator, and Dream, Nightmare’s naive brother.” 

“Ah,” Shears nodded, “then back to the topic, how can we get you back where you belong?” 

You think for a moment, wishing you had asked the guys if your phone could be connected to theirs or get a new one to call them on. Everything would be so much easier if you could just call-... wait. 

You pull out your phone, a touch screen with a case that doubled as a wallet and open your dial pad. 

Shears looked over, “Oh! You can call your friends from other worlds?” 

You sadly shake your head, “No, I forgot to ask if my phone could even be hooked up with theirs. But there is something I could try, though it probably won’t work.” 

You had no bars, so signal, and no connection, but you put a thumb over the one and the other over the zero. Racking your brain to remember the correct order, you dialed, in binary code, Sans. Your screen glitched a bit as the number got passed the normal seven number limit, but thankfully kept going to the last digit. After double-checking to make sure it was right, you pressed the call button. Your screen glitched again, the calling ringtone became static, and your nerves were near shot, but you waited. Listening to the static fill the silence of the empty AU that you and Shears sat in. 

After a few minutes, the screen turned blue and glitched in black and green. Hopes high, you and Shears leaned over the screen and watched it change. Binary code flashed and dashed on the screen faster than you could read, the blue coloring shifted into a lighter hue, and before you knew it… it went dark. 

You slumped and sighed, “It was a long shot anyway.” 

Shears straightened his position and tilted his skull, “What were you hoping to accomplish?” 

“Well,” you rubbed the back of your neck, “I was hoping to get a hold of a Sans that might be able to help us since he’s completely made of code. Guess my theory on ‘summoning’ him was stupid.” 

“Now, don’t sell yourself short.” 

You jerked your head up and snapped your attention back to your phone. There, on a video call, was the skeleton you wanted. 

“Theories are tested to find accuracy and trust me, you were accurate.” the skeleton winked at you with a signature Sans grin. 

You would recognize this bone man anywhere. The neon blue fluff in his hood, the marking on his skull, those glowing eye lights… this was none other than- 

“Digitale Sans.” you were awestruck. 

“The one and only,” he winked with a finger gun pointed at you, revealing his black fingerless gloves, “it’s not every day someone manages to connect me to the ‘real’ world. So, what can I do for ya?” 

“Um,” Shears leaned over to see the screen and you stuck your arm out to give Shears and Digitale Sans room to see each other, “pardon my intrusion.” 

The digital Sans’ eye sockets widened, “Welp, I’ll be, another me. Nice ta meet ya.” 

You smile, “Shears, this is Digitale Sans, or as he’s called in my world, Data. Data, this is Tailoredtale Sans, aka, Shears.” 

“A pleasure to meet you, Data.” Shears smiles and waves. 

“Same here,” Data returns the wave, then turns to you, “but I’d like to know more about the part where you said ‘in my world’. It’s clear ya know me but I’m pretty sure we haven’t met before.” 

You hate repeating long things, but for one of your favorite characters, how can you cut corners? Besides, you got time to kill.

* * *

“Wow.” Data blinked, “That’s uh… a lot to take in.” 

Data was on widescreen, your wallet case converted into a stand, and Shears sat next to you working on something in his phalanges as you repeated everything you said before, but with a bit extra detail and a lot less cursing. 

“So Nightmare and Error are really chill guys? Word around the digital multiverse is-” 

You raise a hand and cut Data off, “I know what Ink and Dream are spreading throughout the AUs. But if you think about it for a moment: what is life without death, creation without destruction?” 

You give Data a minute and can practically see the gears turning in his skull. 

“Balance is an essential part of life,” you explain, “you can’t have one, sans the other, without consequences.” 

Data nodded his skull then paused for a moment and laughed, hearing the pun you slipped. 

You smirk, “Hit your funny bone did I?” 

Data laughed more, then wiped a tear from his eye socket, “Yeah, you did.” 

You both take a moment to chuckle then sigh. Data speaks up after a break, “So, why call me?” 

You brighten up, “You’re completely made of digital code right? The digital world is just the place overlapping the living world and connects to everything digital?” 

“That’s the gist of it,” Data confirmed, “it gets a bit more complicated than that, and it’s technically cyber-space, but you’re close.” 

“Is there a way for you to find Nightmare or Error’s phones and connect mine to them?” you ask, lifting your pointer finger at your idea, “That way I can call them and tell them where I am so they can come to get me rather than comb the multiverse looking for where I went.” 

Data smiled and shrugged, “I can do that. But I can also do you one better.” 

“Really?” you and Shears ask at the same time. 

“Ya said you’re staying in Nightmare’s hideout, right?” Data asked as he lifted a hand to the bottom corner of the screen. You could see a transparent blue screen edge appear, it’s color identical to Data’s fluff. 

“Yeah,” you admit, “it’s a dead AU Nightmare and Error move around a lot so Ink and Dream can’t find it.” 

Data nods and backs up from the screen a bit, turning his attention to something lower, likely another screen. Getting a wider view, you can see his black coat faded to grey closer to the zipper, and his shirt faded from his signature light blue to green farther towards the hem. 

“When you say ‘do you one better’, do you mean you can get Y/N back faster?” Shears asked. 

“Yup,” Data answered and looked up in the opposite direction, lifting a hand to another screen, “as she said, I’m made up of code. So I can interact with it directly. And as she probably knows from the destroyer, Error, AUs are made up of code.” 

You gasp, “Are you saying you can make a portal connecting two AUs from cyber-space?!” 

He winks and smirks at you, “Uh-huh.” 

“I knew Sanses were geniuses,” you say, flabbergasted, “but how smart are you guys?!” 

Data playfully smirked, shrugged, and closed his eye sockets while leaning back, “Dunno.” 

“That’s not an answer!” you shout. 

“Yes, it is,” he straightened and winked at you, raising a hand with three phalanges up, “and your ride home should be in sight in three, two, one.” 

You heard a digital warping sound behind you, causing you and Shears to turn around. A portal stood just a few feet away, large and wide enough to be the size of a bus door. It was rectangular but with slightly rounded corners. A transparent pale blue glow showed proof it was Data’s work. The portal wasn’t see-through like a mirror, instead, it seemed to pull inwards like a black hole. 

“That should take ya straight to the AU,” Data said as you grabbed your phone and stood up. Shears did as well and you both walked over to the portal, “likely land you next to the front door.” 

“Likely?” you ask, raising a brow. 

Data just shrugged, “You’ll have to find out.” 

You roll your eyes and then turn to Shears, who was staring at the portal in awe. 

“You wanna meet my friends?” you ask Shears. 

Shears looked at you then the portal, then back, “I-I know you said they were kind but… I’ve done things-” 

“Stop,” you command, surprising Shears as you continued, “what happened is in the past. Anyone else in your place would have done the same, or even worse. You’re not entirely to blame either, as I said, your world was made like this. It was out of your control the moment you came to be. Don’t think so little of yourself for things you didn’t have a say in. I’m sure the guys will agree with me.” 

Shears looks at you hopefully as Data speaks up, “Just so you know, I can’t keep the portal open forever and it’s likely the second Nightmare realizes I did open it, he’ll move the AU somewhere else.” 

You smile at Shears, holding a hand out as you step forward towards the portal. Shears hesitates but grabs your hand firmly. With a smile, you walk through with Shears right behind you. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BTW: I don't know how to actually summon Digitale Sans, that was just an idea I got in my head. 
> 
> Tell me what you think of it though!


	5. You Introduce

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all! Chapter 5 is uploaded, please leave comments down below!

Stepping out of the portal, you take a moment to get your bearings as you hear the portal close behind you. 

You’re at the front door, the large double doors standing tall in front of you with the raven statues adding charms to the entrance and the black swan flower pots holding flowers waiting for nightfall added color. Moonflowers were planted if you remembered correctly. 

“What’d I tell ya?” you lift your right hand to look at Data on your phone, “I did one better.” 

You smile, “Yes, you did. Thanks, Data, would have been stuck there longer without you.” 

“Oh, my,” you heard Shears and turned around. The skeleton was stone still with awe and overwhelmed, “when you said it was a castle, I didn’t expect this.” 

You looked up and understood. The castle was a bit much at first sight. It’s dark and mysterious aura probably didn’t help calm others down who weren’t living here. 

You place a hand on Shears’ shoulder, who flinched in surprise at first before calming down as he saw your smile. 

“Don’t worry,” you reassure him, “it’s a maze at first but once you get used to it you’ll be right at home.” 

Shear blinked and you walked up to open the left door. The hinges creaked and you made a mental note to oil them later as you gestured for Shears to step inside. 

Once you both were in, you closed the door as Shears gasped at the entrance hall. Before you started decorating, the room had been black, dull, and empty. Now, thanks to Fresh’s good eye for stylish decor, the floor was covered in a grand red carpet with black sides, tables were placed between arched halls that led to different places in the castle, and candle holders lit the area. The tables held beautiful glass vases and bowls, all in black amethyst or black depression glass. Wall hangings were placed above them, all were dark linen scrolls with night-blooming flowers and nocturnal creatures. 

You raise the phone up for Data to see and hear him gasp as well, “This is Nightmare’s hideout? I thought I’d be, you know, empty and full of dust and cobwebs. The whole ‘haunted castle with eyes watching you’ shebang.” 

You giggle, “Yeah, the decor was my idea. When I started living here I insisted on livening up the place. It was empty on Nightmare’s choice so you were right a little over three months ago. Except for the dust and cobwebs part, all that stays in the dungeons. The rest of the castle is kept clean as a whistle.” 

You begin walking towards a hall that leads to the kitchen and gesture Shears to follow you, “Come on, we need to see if anyone’s home yet.” 

Shears and Data kept looking over the items scattered throughout the halls as you went straight to the kitchen. Shears stayed on your heels while Data just kept looking through the screen. 

Reaching the dining hall, you found your cake untouched with three chairs pushed out and two cushions on the floor. 

“Not in here,” you note as Shears glanced over the table and chairs, “if there’s a mess like this, it probably means they’re already out looking for me.” 

“Should we be worried?” Shears asked. 

“Nope,” you respond, heading back in the hall and walking towards the living room, “searching means most will be out and at least one person will be here in case I made it back on my own.” 

Shears catches up to you as you walk in the direction of the living room, “Who do you suppose remained to watch?” he asked. 

You think for a moment, “If I had to guess, either Cross or-” 

You stop at the living room entrance where you see Fresh sitting on the couch with his glasses blank and skull down. 

Not liking what you see, you march up to him and snap your fingers in front of his face. The colorful skeleton snaps out of his depression trans and looks up at you as if you were a ghost. 

You smile, “Heya, I’m back. You miss me?” 

Fresh suddenly wrapped his arms around you and knocked you to the floor. You lose hold of your phone and wrap your arms around Fresh, “Hey, big guy, it’s alright. I made it back fine.” 

“Where were ya?!” he all but screamed in your face, “Ya been missin’ since the gang got back!” 

You rubbed his spine a bit to calm him, “Yeah, I couldn’t really measure the exact time where I was, so, how long has it been here?” 

“Eight hours!” Fresh grabbed your coat and shook you, “Eight hours since they got back and couldn’t find ya anywhere! Do ya got any idea how worried we was?!” 

You blink and sigh, “I’m really sorry Fresh, but I kinda blacked out again and fell through a portal-” 

“A portal?!” Fresh was getting more worried than calm at this point, so you pushed him off you and placed your hands on his shoulders. 

“Look, I’ll explain everything as best I can once everyone comes home. Can you tell them I’m back, please?” 

Fresh looked you over and locked eyes with you then took a deep breath and nodded. 

“Thank you,” you say as you both get up, “we’ll talk at the table, over some tea. Oh, and tell them we have a couple of guests over.” 

“Guests?” Fresh looked around and finally saw Shears, who moved to get your phone and hold up Data. 

Shears shyly waved with a small smile, “Hello, Fresh. We are sorry for the short notice.” 

“Yeah,” Data spoke up, “Y/N wanted us to meet all of you guys.” 

Fresh looked at you and you shrugged, “Short answer, I ended up in Shears’ AU and summoned Data to help us get here.” 

Fresh shook his head with a chuckle, “Nightmare’s gonna want the long answer when he gets here.” Fresh stated as he pulled out his phone. 

You head back to the hall, planning to make tea for everyone. You turn your head to reply, “I know.” 

* * *

Once everyone got back and finished fussing over you, _‘I’m not made of glass and if anything happened I could have defended myself. You guys have been training me!’_ , they all sat down at the table with fresh, hot cranberry tea. 

You happily walked around the table refilling tea, you’ve been waiting for the chance to use the royal red glass tea set Fresh swiped for you. The cups and plates looked like polished rubies on the table. 

**“So,”** Nightmare spoke up, **“you blacked out after finishing the cake and you suddenly found yourself in, Tailoredtale, was it?”**

You nod, “Yup. But only Shears saw the portal.” 

“It was a surprise to see her fall into my world,” Shears added, “I haven’t had company for many years.” 

“What is your AU like?” Cross asked, biting into a slice of chocolate bundt cake. 

Shears sighed and looked over the room, “It’s completely empty, void of all that used to be. Having the chance to see more color than my own is… there are no words.” 

Cross froze, “Your world turned white?” 

You place and hand on Cross’ shoulder, “You’re not the only skeleton in the multiverse who’s world went blank. Shears spent a lot of time alone after he became the only survivor of Tailoredtale.” 

Cross hesitated before asking, “What happened to your brother?” 

Shears’ eye sockets widened and he began staring at nothing, mumbling incoherently, “... Papy-... it- my fault... I-...” 

You put the tea down and clap your hands, gaining everyone’s attention. 

“I think it’s best we avoid triggering sensitive territory right now, given most of you are worn down to the bone.” 

Most boys chuckled at the pun, and you continued, “Back to the main topic of this gathering: after I landed in Tailoredtale, I called, or, well, summoned Data to help us get out of there and back here.” 

“how did you do that anyway?” Dust asked, “i don’t remember adjusting your phone to work here.” 

“You’re right,” Data smugly answered, “you didn’t.” 

You moved to the empty chair next to where your phone was standing and gestured to the skeleton on screen, “This is Data, the Digitale Sans. Technically, Digitale isn’t an AU, rather it’s the cyber-space or digital world of the multiverse. Data here can connect to almost anything electronic anywhere. To test a theory of mine, I called his name using binary code to dial ‘Sans’ into my phone. After a few minutes, he picked up and found us. Then he got us back to the castle using his ability to work with code.” 

Data nodded, “Yeah, took a bit ta find your hideout but I managed… barely.” that last word was mumbled but you heard it. 

Error smirked, **“i’D eXpeCT nO leSS. NIGHtmArE wORkeD hARd To mAke SuRe INk aNd DREam nEveR fOUNd tHis PLacE.”**

“And ya did good,” Data commented, “took a lot of searching ta find it. And that’s coming from a guy made out of code.” 

Nightmare smiled then turned to you, **“I’ll overlook you bringing strangers to the hideout, but just this once. Dust,”** the leader turned to the smartest of the group, **“hook the princess into our contacts. I don’t want another incident like this happening again.”**

“I’m not a princess.” you state but are ignored, safe Nightmare’s teasing grin. 

“I can help,” Data piped up, “this phone’s system is different and I can guide ya through any problems ya might run into.” 

“that’d be useful,” Dust said as he took your phone up and walked towards the hall, “maybe you could even check over our line’s security. tell me where any openings might be.” 

“Sure,” Dust replied before they disappeared down the hall. 

Nightmare turned his attention to Shears, **“As for you, I don’t think sending you back to your world is the best option.”**

Shears blink confused as you grinned. Nightmare saw it but didn’t show any facial hints to Shears as he continued, **“We have room to spare as long as you pitch in with cleaning. Given what’s been hinted, I think you’ll fit right in here.”**

Shears looked at Nightmare as though he were expecting the dark skeleton to tell him it was all a joke. But nothing came and Shears remained speechless. Wanting to seal the deal, you place a hand on Shears’ shoulder, gaining his attention. 

“It does get a bit lonely in here when the boys are out,” you say with a hopeful smile, “and you don’t have to partake in anything you’re not comfortable with. So?” 

Shears’ eye sockets widened more and he looked around the table. Cross was beaming with a hopeful grin. Killer was smirking like he knew what the answer was going to be before anyone else. Error shrugged with a kind smile then looked back down at his crocheting. Horror gave a welcoming smile with Fresh next to him, his glasses asking ‘WELL?’. 

Shears began to cry as his grin widened to the point you worried he might break his skull. You heard gentle, ‘Fhu, hu, hu! Fhu, hu, hu, hu!’s coming from the green-clad Sans as he began to shake. You wrapped an arm around Shears and rubbed his shoulder. He leaned into your embrace and began to freely dry from happiness. 

“Thank you.” Shears repeated, over and over again. 

Cross soon moved to give the skeleton a proper hug, and soon, the rest of the gang joined in. 

Maybe this is why you came here. 

* * *

The days that followed were eventful. 

Shears got just as lost in the castle as you did, starting out. You both laughed at it and soon the whole gang traded embarrassing stories of their first times in Nightmare’s castle. 

Blood insisted on a celebratory dinner for the stay of the newest Sans and Shears insisted on helping out. The two quickly bonded in the kitchen and you watched it all happen while preparing desserts. Horror approved with the extra help in the kitchen and got along great with Shears in the process. 

Shears choose a room in the boys’ hallway, decorating it all with string flowers in all sorts of colors. 

The gang took another ‘shopping’ trip for Shears’ new room and Shears even joined them. Though, he stuck to the shadows with Cross to avoid being seen. In the end, Shears only got a few clothes and a ton of fabrics and a sewing machine plus everything necessary for making clothes. Shears simply said that there was little stuff to his tastes and he’d have more fun making his outfits himself. 

By the end of the day, Shears had a room covered in green and pink with hints of red, orange, yellow, light blue, dark blue, and purple. The walls were light green and the ceiling was painted dark pink. The bed had light pink blankets and lime green sheets. The pillows were an even paler green with small white throw pillows with designs of flowers in the human soul colors. The dresser, nightstand, and sewing desk were all painted completely white to contrast the colors of the room. 

Shears and Error became instant friends during croquet and the three of you often hung out during spare time quietly talking while working. 

Shears happily showed off his strings and his fighting style, bringing out his lovely pair of shears to boot. After a demonstration, Nightmare suggested sticking to the sidelines with Cross if he ever wanted to join one of their missions. He didn’t need to kill, but his defense was good enough to impress the King of Negativity himself. Shears was a little flustered the rest of the day. 

Fresh approved of Shears’ lack of cursing and soon found himself another ally in the ‘no bad lingo’ group. The two also strangely bonded over the color pink which suited both skeletons in disregard to the standard ‘pink is for girls’ nonsense. You wholeheartedly supported them and their fashion choices. 

Shears also was a big help around the castle. It seemed chores were done quickly and the castle shined whenever Shears was finished. You could swear the decorative vases and bowls twinkled in the lighting sometimes. 

Dust and Data made your phone able to work in the multiverse, the two bonding over it and soon becoming inseparable. Killer joined in and soon the group of three were working on improving their online security, testing projects, and planning for bigger ideas. Nightmare’s only rule was they didn’t blow up any part of the castle. They soon set up a work shed in the middle of the woods to do ‘test runs’. Spoilers, a lot of things blew the place sky-high. You were just thankful it was out there and not in the castle. 

Data had become a sort of navigator to the gang. Playing as an informant of AUs and their codes as well as directing calls and coding messages. Data was also the one to suggest the gang use a codename for you when talking on missions in case Ink or Dream caught on or heard them. Nightmare wanted to stick to ‘princess’, which was cute and all, but that made it sound like you were a captive and it might trigger Ink into thinking he needed to ‘save’ you. When the discussion of the codename went around, Fresh said they needed something completely opposite of what Ink would expect from a Dark Sans. And that’s when it hit you. Opposite. What was the opposite of Sans? You remembered looking it up a long time ago: Avec. The Spanish and French word for ‘with’. Opposite of ‘sans’ which means ‘without’. Sharing the idea, your official codename was now Avec. 

Nightmare still called you princess though. 

Dust and Killer worked together to hook up a small screen in the kitchen, dining room, living room, and some of the halls, including a smaller one in the dungeon so Data could hook up and interact with everyone without needing to hold up a small phone every time. 

In the weeks after, Data was able to tell you instantly if the gang was going to be late or early. He and Shears were great company when the gang and Error went out and Fresh jumped AUs. It was nice and peaceful as the days continued. 

The Dark Sanses had two more allies. You had two more friends. 

Still… something nagged in your mind. 

‘What else am I here for?’ 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you think? 
> 
> Do Shears and Data make good teammates with the Dark Sanses?


	6. You Adapt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love (the good kind) all of you readers as much as you love this story! 
> 
> Please never stop leaving comments and kudos!

“You sure you’ll be okay for two hours more? Shears said he’d pop over if you need company.” 

“Data, it’s sweet how you guys worry over me, but I’ll be fine. I’m a big girl, not a delicate ‘princess’.” 

It’s officially the end of the sixth month since you came to the Undertale multiverse. Shears was getting more confident in going out with the gang, often taking the role of ‘mysterious ally’ in the shadows with Cross but never revealing himself. 

Shears sometimes brought back souls practically dead and somehow turned what was left of their magic into ‘special threads’. He kept all of his ‘special threads’ in his room and saved them for something. The guys didn’t even mind it. They had all taken lives at one point in time, others had tortured in worse ways. You? Souls weren’t as much of a big deal to humans as they were to monsters, so~... you honestly weren’t affected by the implication unless it was flat out or bluntly stated what was happening. To you, the remains of souls were transformed into magic strings. To ‘normal’ monsters, the dying accumulation of one’s very being and self is being torn and shaped into a part of something else until all that’s left of the person is gone while the magic remains with someone else. 

So, yeah, that was a thing now. 

The downside was that with Shears going out, meant you were once more, alone. Hey, you had a lot less alone time than before Shears and Data joined so that’s a plus. 

But Data, being observant as ever, had taken it upon himself to notice your dislike of being alone despite it not really affecting you unless it was for an extended period of time. Example: ten hours straight with no one to talk to. But that hasn’t happened since before Shears and Data moved in. 

Right now, you were finishing the icing on a strawberry chocolate layered cake for dessert. The whole gang was all out tonight, clearing some copies Error needed to destroy with Fresh lending a hand. The colorful boy may not like violence but he was not one to be underestimated. Too bad that only made Ink cement the idea of Fresh being a soul-eating parasite. 

Turns out, Ink decided to crash the party and brought Dream, Classic Sans, and a few other judges with him to the battle. Among them were Underswap Papyrus and Underfell Sans from the original AUs. 

They weren’t going to be home for dinner for at least two more hours if the ‘good guys’ didn’t bring any more reinforcements. 

So you were alone for the rest of the day, likely until morning with the gang’s luck. It’s fine. You can take care of yourself. 

You finished the last touch on your work and covered the cake with a dome, moving the red glass stand it was on to the dining table. 

“I’ll find something to distract myself tonight,” you turn around to face the screen Data was displayed on, “you boys just make sure you all come back in one piece, okay?” 

The neon blue skeleton seemed to want to argue, but sighed and nodded instead, “Alright. But the second you feel uncomfortable-” 

“Call you,” you finish, “I know. We’ve gone over this a bajillion times. Now go cover their backs before Squid does something more stupid than usual.” 

Data chuckled then the screen shut off, indicating he went back to working on the fight. You pulled out a plate, filled it with your dinner, stored the rest, reheated the plate, and moved to the living room. You put on a Mew Mew Kissy Cutie to finish the series. You had decided to watch it then Mew Mew Kissy Cutie Two to find out what all the fuss was about with Undertale Alphys and Underswap Undyne. 

By the time you got through to the season finale of MMKC, it’s been three hours. Yup, the gang will be coming home extra late tonight. Good thing you got some extra sleep this morning, waking up Sans Style: at 3 pm. Now you could binge-watch MMKC2 throughout the night with no distractions. 

Still, it would be nice to have some company. 

‘Kinda wish I had a friend that didn’t need to go out and kick Squid’s butt.’

You get up to change the film and feel something. It takes a second to identify it, then you remembered. Before you ended up in Tailoredtale, you felt this same spinning feeling, like your soul was turning into a toy top. You absently rub the spot over your chest as you stop in the middle of the living room. 

“Maybe I should call-” 

Your vision then begins to go dark. Your body shuts down, but you’re not tired, you’re full of energy. You feel like you’re falling down. Then you blackout. 

* * *

You wake up to the sound of ringing. Loud ringing. 

You turn over and blink back at the sunlight in your eyes. Wait… sun? 

You sit up, feeling the grass under your skin and the chill breeze of the wind. Looking around, you notice you’re under a tree, shading you from most of the sunlight. The tree stands on a small hill overlooking a park clearing. It’s empty now, safe for a few joggers and dog owners. 

It looks like the park is on the outskirts of a city. You can see the main road buzzing with cars going into a jungle of buildings that kept getting bigger. 

Looking at yourself, you’re still in the clothes you put on this morning, well, afternoon. Midnight blue ankle boots, white leggings, a periwinkle purple A-line skirt, and a black tee under your favorite trench coat. 

The ringing caught your attention again and you pat yourself down, finding your phone in your front coat pocket. You answer without looking at the number, instantly putting on a video call, “Hello? Data?” 

“Thank the Angel. You finally answered.” Data looked genuinely worried and you felt a little bad for being the cause of his concern. 

“Sorry. How long have you been trying to call?” you ask. 

“Thirty minutes after my sensors told me you disappeared from the castle.” Wait- 

“Sensors?” you ask, “You have sensors hooked up in the castle now?” 

Data smirked, “Well, when I became the official mainline between you and the gang, Dust wanted to make me the one in charge of being on the lookout for another ‘portal surprise’. He and Killer set them up in every room and hall except the bedrooms and bathrooms. I’m also the unofficial ‘Y/N security’ in case someone pops up in the castle that isn’t supposed to be there.” 

Okay, it was for safety reasons, you’ll let it slide. 

“Alright, I get that. They’re just worried and honestly, it’s better to be safe than sorry.” 

Data smiled, “Knew you’d understand. So, any idea which AU you’re in? I’m trying ta track your location through your phone, but it’s gonna take a minute, I’m running a lot of visuals right now.” 

“Don’t let me distract you,” you wave a hand, brushing off his efforts, “I’m on the surface, so I think I’m in a safe AU for now. I landed in a park and no one is here, so I don’t think anyone saw me pop up. I’m not seeing many monsters though, so I can’t say for sure where I am.” 

Data nodded, “Okay, surface AU or timeline. You’re human so you should blend in without any questions.” You notice he keeps glancing to his right, trying to focus on two things at once. 

“You should hang up and call me later.” you suggest, “Once the fight dies down, call me again. I’ll send you a text if I find out which AU I’m in or call you if it’s an emergency. Okay?” 

Data looks uncertain, but compiles, “Alright, but you better be careful.” 

You smirk, “I’ve been training with Dust, Killer, Horror, Cross, and Shears. You think I wouldn’t take those lessons to heart?” 

Data blinks then chuckles, “Okay, okay. Anyone messes with you, give ‘em hell.” 

“You bet on it.” you give the best playfully wicked smirk you can muster and Data laughs a bit before he hangs up. 

You pocket your phone and look around again. You can see a couple of monsters now, a cat and a bunny, but not Burgerpants and the Nice Cream guy. Looking up at the sky, you estimate the time is around midafternoon. You stand up, dust yourself off, and walk down the hill. There’s a slight chill in the wind and some of the trees are getting red leaves. Autumn, the perfect weather and you don’t have to get too many looks for wearing a trench coat. If you were walking around with it in the middle of summer, you would have instantly been a sideshow attraction. 

You exit the park and begin walking down a sidewalk headed towards the smaller buildings of the city. You don’t want to risk being mugged, so the outskirts were the safer option. Training or no, city street gangs were a thing. 

You walk down a bit and see a familiar and welcoming sight. A cafe called Muffet’s. Painted in elegant purples, blacks, and pure whites. 

You smile, internally containing your utter glee, and walk inside. The tiny bell chime is cute but not annoying in the slightest. 

Little spiders greet you, hanging on their lines a safe distance away in case you were a spider-crushing human. You smile and wave hello to them, which they seem extremely happy for and they grab a menu, taking it to an empty booth by the bar counter. 

You sit and thank the little arachnids and they leave with happy spirits. Glancing at the register, you see Muffet selling a bag of goodies to a happy customer. Muffet’s general coloring and attire confirm a possible Undertale timeline. 

You shoot Data a text of your theory and then open the menu. It seems less pricey than you expected, but Muffet was on the surface now, she would have to cut back a bit. 

“Hello, dear!” a sweet voice greets you and you happily smile widely at Muffet, cute outfit, six arms, five eyes, and all of the above. “My little ones were telling me how nice you were to them. What would you like deary?” 

You don’t even have to think twice, “Can I get a Booberry muffin, some of your famous spider donuts, and some spider cider, please?” 

Muffet covers her mouth with one hand as two write your order on a sheet, two of her eyes on the right side close, “Oh~! Deary, we’ll have them right out!” 

You give the menu to her outstretched hand and smile, “Thank you, Miss Muffet.” 

“Just Muffet to you, Deary,” she puts another hand in front of you and you happily shake it, “not every day we get a nice human without any problems with monsters. Especially us spiders.” 

You pull your hand back and shrug, “People need to start looking at the person inside over one’s outer appearance. And my housemates are monsters, so I don’t have a problem.” 

“Ahuhuhu!” Muffet laughs, “That explains it. What’s your name, Deary?” 

“Avec,” is what slips out, truthfully, you're grateful. Your real name might not have been a good idea in the small chance Sans or Ink stop by, “and I can’t wait to try your baking, Muffet. I hear it’s some of the best.” 

“Ahuhuhuhu!” she giggles, “Flatterer!” Muffet walks back to the kitchen and you are left alone. 

You take this time to pull out your phone, Data texted back a thank you for the tip and said the fight might die down pretty soon. Sighing in relief, you then go to the extra feature on your phone. When Data and Dust made your phone usable to the multiverse, they noticed, like a lot of human phones, it didn’t have a dimensional box. So~, they gave you one! You kept a spare change of clothes, some paper and pens, and a first aid kit in there, but also money in both human and monster currency. Nightmare practically dumped a treasure chest on you when you asked for some in case of emergencies. Shears and Cross also stockpile on gold and cash they randomly find, you had the castle’s safe cleaned to store everything. 

You pull out your change pouch full of gold and pocket it. Hey, gold is worth more, and Muffet loves money. You’re sure she’ll appreciate it. 

Your attention returns to the table as Muffet returned with a beautiful platter of six donuts, a large muffin, and a ceramic cup of steaming cider. 

“Ahuhuhu!” Muffet smiles at you, “Enjoy, Avec.” 

“I will!” you cheerfully say as you reach for a donut and take a bite. It’s everything you dreamed of! It doesn’t taste like spiders at all! It’s so perfect! 

Before you even know it, thirty minutes later you have a full stomach and an empty table. 

“I take it I lived up to your expectations?” Muffet asked you teasingly as she took your dishes. 

“Even better,” you honestly reply, “I don’t know how I lived without this in my life.” 

“Ahuhuhuhuhu!” Muffet laughs with the spiders on the ceiling joining in, “You are an interesting human, Avec.” 

You smile and pour out half the gold in your pouch, you have half a dozen more in your inventory, you’ll live without a bit. 

“Here.” you hand the gold over into a pair of Muffet’s hands that are cupped. When she sees the gold she’s flabbergasted. 

“So much- but how did you?” you smile at her cute stuttering. 

“I have some saved up,” you say nonchalantly, “I think you’ll put it to better use than me.” 

You get up and begin walking to the door as Muffet says, “At least let me give you change-” 

You cut her off and wave a hand in the air, turning your head to wink at her with a smile, “Keep it. Consider it a tip… for being so cute~.” 

Oh~ yeah, it happened. ACT: Flirt. Check that off the bucket list! 

You didn’t stick around to see or hear her reaction as you quickly left the establishment and headed down the street, turned a corner, and let your mind go wild. 

You flirted with a monster from Undertale! So much fun! No wonder Frisk likes doing it so much. And you did it with Muffet no less! And you got to try her sweets. Bonus! 

You smile ridiculously wide and at the corner of your eye, you see a candy store. Monster candy to be exact. 

This day just keeps getting better. 

You purchase some, a lot, of candy from a sweet bear monster, pay him in gold, which flusters him, and leave with bags of candy in your inventory and some pieces in your pocket. You have a skip in your step and you’re lighter than air as you sample some. 

The theories were right! Monster candy really is like saltwater taffy! But the flavor is even better somehow! Not too sugary, not too sweet, not too bold, and perfectly chewy. 

Then your eye catches something else. A poster on a bus stop for a… bitty sale. It had pictures of Baby Blues, Sansies, and even some little Grillbies. 

“This week,” you read, “at the corner of Wood St. Mama Cry’s Bitty Care Center.” 

The small map showed your location and the center. It wasn’t far. Should you? 

Maybe a little look-see. 

You follow the memorized path and soon see it. A one floor, wide, and colorful bitty center. Some bitties were even playing in the display window area. You see tiny bone brothers from Underswap, Undertale, Outertale, some tiny Grillbies, and… cat hybrids? Well, you learn something new every day. 

You quickly sent Data a text telling him you discovered bitties in the AU, then you lower the ringtone volume and pocket it. You contain your desire to squeal as you walk into the store. 

“Hello!” you were greeted by a cat monster with yellow fur and a male voice, “Welcome to Mama Cry’s. What can we do for ya?” 

You glance around, “I’m just looking… for now.” 

The guy gets what you’re saying and turned, heading towards the back, “If you need anything, just ask.” 

You nod and walk towards the side of the shop where you see a glass wall. Once you get there, you bite your lip to stop the growing squeal. Bitties! Lots of them. You can even see some Bosses and Edgys, Runts, and Pups. The whole package is right through the glass and you can barely contain yourself. 

“Want to meet some?” 

You’re startled and step back but you sigh in relief once you see it’s just a bunny monster. Glancing at her tag, you beam. 

“So, you’re the famous Mama Cry?” you ask. 

She smiled, “I am indeed, but you haven’t answered my question.” 

You glance one more time and nod to her, “Yes, please.” 

Mama Cry gives you a smile and opens the glass door, you walk in first, then her so she can seal it shut. You are swarmed by ‘Hello’s, ‘How are you’s, and ‘Will you be my friend?’s from Blues, Paps, and- 

“Dream’s here?” you ask out loud. 

“Yes,” Mama Cry replied, “we have some here. Unfortunately, most got adopted on the first day.” 

You nod and look around the closed playroom. Now that you’re looking, you can see little Inks and Dream around, but- 

Movement from the darker part of the room catches your attention. You take a couple of steps in the direction when Mama Cry stops you, “You might not want to go there. They get territorial, even with other bitties.” 

You look again and squint in the poor lighting. Your heart drops when you see the damage. Three pairs of brothers: Horrortale, Horrorswap, and Horrorfell. Then two Sanses without brothers and different marks, one to Killertale, and one to Dusttale. Up in a shelf nest are three more: Corrupted Nightmare, Cross, and Error. All looked hurt physically and emotionally. 

“What happened?” you ask, picturing these skeletons being your housemates. 

Mama Cry glances down and the bitties reaching you before moved away, getting the feeling of the subject. 

“They’re rescues,” she explains as all the injured skellies look you over, “from an illegal bitty fighting ring that was shut down two months ago. We’ve healed them as best we could but… there’s still damage.” 

“And none of them are getting adopted because all people see is the scars.” you finish for her. Mama Cry nods, not denying anything. 

You look over the eleven skeletons that are glaring at you but you smile at them. 

You turn your head to face Mama Cry and ask, “Do you have a meet and greet room?” 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Your housemates' bitty counterparts are hurting. What would you do?


	7. You Adopt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you like Dark Sanses and bittybones, leave kudos!

The room was painted like a scene from a springtime cartoon but it was fairly big, had space for bitties to get away, and a good tablel to keep your distance and not push anything. Roughly four feet long and two feet wide is your estimate. 

Mama Cry had looked at you like you were crazy when you suggested talking to the traumatized bitties. Without a caretaker to ‘keep them calm’. 

You explained you were well acquainted with traumatized people, therefore, you were sure of how to approach a brood of terrified bitties. And one thing you never do is make a group, that essentially becomes family over trauma, nervous, anxious, or scared. They were the size of your hand and humans were the ones responsible for their trauma, you needed to approach them without fear or reason for them to be afraid. 

If a caretaker had to be in the room during the talk, the bitties would take that as a reason to be afraid of the human. You needed them to see you were harmless without an air of fear. 

The entire group. You insisted it was everyone at once. They thought you had a death wish, but really, you had a plan. 

The scenario you were putting yourself in left you the possible victim of this talk, and that is what you wanted. Eleven against one: they would be safer, you would be in danger. Establish trust by putting them in a better position than you. 

A risk, a suicidal one, but a good one that you know will work. 

You hear the door open, you sit at the end of the table that leads to nothing but a wall. You were in the corner, they were near escape. The cat guy who greeted you nervously placed the box on the opposite chair, glanced up at you as if to say ‘good luck’, and left through the door, closing it. You had covered the small window with the curtain, so all people could do was eavesdrop, no prying eyes to trigger trauma. The employee didn’t seem to notice the window was blocked, too scared to stay in the same room at the bitties for too long. How sad. 

The first skull to pop out of the box was the Nightmare. Makes sense, no matter the AU, Nightmare would be the one in charge. 

Error nervously came next as Nightmare stood on the table and glared at you. Surprisingly, or not at all, Blood’s tiny counterpart climbed out next with a bit of joy, followed by the Horrorswap Blue. Their brothers were not far behind, staying protectively close. Cross’ mini-self moved fast and was standing behind Nightmare before you could even see him move. The Horrorfell brothers were next, followed by the little Dust and Killer. 

You smile warmly to each of them, “Hello, call me Avec. Nice to meet you all.” 

**“What are you playing at?”** Nightmare demanded, some tentacles twitching behind him. 

You shrug, “Nothing. I don’t really play games with people’s lives. That’s not my style.” 

**“We aRen’t PeOple.”** Error states, furrowing his eye sockets. 

“I don’t know who told you that,” you calmly begin, “but that’s a lie. You have sentience, free will, self-thoughts, and morals. You are people. Don’t let others tell you otherwise.” 

That shocks some of them for a moment before they go back to glaring at you, but the little Blood and hungry Blue have hope in their eye lights. It breaks your heart they haven’t been treated right for so long. 

“what do you want?” the Horrorswap Papyrus asked, you could see his eye sockets search you for anything to make you suspicious in their books, and, therefore, unliked. 

“Nothing that you’re thinking I might want,” you say honestly, “I just want to be your friend.” 

Nightmare and Error laughed, followed by the lazybones of the Horror bitties, and finished by Dust and Killer’s tiny copies. 

“buddy,” the little Killer spoke up, “no one really wants to be our friend.” 

You smirk, “First time for everything little man, and I’m being honest. I want to be your friend. My own housemates have done far worse than you guys could dream of, so your backgrounds don’t scare me.” 

That makes every one of them blink, **“care ta elaborate on that, human?”** Horrorfell Sans asked you. 

You shrug, “My friends have killed people. Self-defence, survival, you name it, they’ve done it. But that doesn’t make them bad people, they’re just misunderstood. So they have some LV, truthfully, few people don’t in the scenarios they were thrown into. When it comes down to you or a stranger, of course, you’re gonna choose yourself. Especially if your life's on the line, or your brother’s.” 

You probably should be speaking lower, you have a sinking feeling Mama Cry is listening, but you don’t want to. They need to know you care about them, not their past or appearances. 

You’re just scratching the surface of the gang’s past, but it’s enough. You can see Nightmare and Error losing tension. Dust and Killer glancing at each other. Cross coming out from behind Nightmare with hope in his eye lights. You notice the red scratch under his eye socket is bigger than your Cross’, likely from a bad fight. 

The Horrors are looking more and more hopeful. The energetic brothers are smiling while the protective ones seem to be having a silent meeting. The Horror Boss was looking at you critically, but you can see the upturn of his jawline and the spark of hope in his eye lights. 

Then, the Horrorswap Sans runs up to you. His brother protests and calls him back as well as the rest of the group. But he only stopped when he was a foot away from you. 

“IF YOU ADOPT US,” the Horror version of Blueberry began, “WOULD YOU ADOPT THE FRESH TOO?” 

You blink, “There’s a Fresh here too?” 

Cross spoke up to answer, “Yeah, he’s the only other bitty in the center that hasn’t been afraid of us. He’s reaching his holding limit.” 

“Holding limit?” you ask, having a feeling you already know the answer. 

**“It’s the limited amount of time a center can keep a bitty,”** Nightmare explained, **“and the amount of time a bitty can go without being adopted.”**

You were afraid of that. But, what’s one more? “Sure,” you smile, “I’ll adopt your whole family.” 

The Horror Blue and Pap cheer while the others look at you like you were crazy, “What?” you ask them. 

“all of us?” Dust gestured to the group, “in case you haven’t noticed, we’re a big group.” 

You smile and shrug, “So? You’re family, I’m not spitting any of you up.” 

**“ya might get problems at the register,”** the Horrorfell Sans jerked his skull to the door, **“pretty sure there’s an adoption limit.”**

You pause, then smirk, “Little guy, one thing you learn on the surface is: money always talks.” 

* * *

“-and all the clothes, plus the- um… are you sure you want that one?” the lady at the register, a bird monster, asked as she pointed to the bitty house you chose. Which was actually a castle. A dark one that looked straight out of a medieval movie. It came with fifteen rooms, plus working bathrooms, two living rooms, an eating area, and a kitchen, and it’s the last one on the shelf. 

“Yup,” you pop the ‘p’ as you reply, “it’s gonna match the ‘house’ nicely.” you smirk. 

She looked at you weirdly but scanned the extra-large box, “Well your total is over a thousand with that. Are you paying with credit?” 

“Nope,” you smirk at her confused face, pull out two full pouches of gold, and empty them on the counter, “I think this will do.” 

The bird lady’s eyes were close to falling out, Mama Cry had the same reaction when you paid for the little guys. Even they were flabbergasted with the gold you were throwing out. 

“Dang,” you turn to see the bitty Fresh rub the back of his skull as he stared at the gold pile, “ya got a lotta cash ta be pourin’ it out like that.” 

You giggle, “Well, the guys like to keep me well-stocked.” 

“ARE YOU SURE YOUR ROOMMATES WILL BE FINE WITH US?” Horrortale Papyrus asked, “THEY MAY NOT ACCEPT US SO EASILY AS YOU, HUMAN AVEC.” 

You smile and wave off his concern, “One of the guys is fussing over me being alone a lot. They all work pretty random jobs that last a long time, so I’m left by myself more than he likes. This way, his concerns are over, and I get some new friends. Win-win for everyone.” 

**“That’s just one of them,”** the Nightmare points out, **“what about the rest?”**

You give him a reassuring smile, “As I said, they’ve been through a lot of things. They won’t judge you guys a bit. Trust me, you’ll bond with them easily.” 

Nightmare grumbled a little with Error. You know they’re just coming along because the others are going with you. You hope once you get home and explain everything, they’ll open up. 

You take your receipt from the cashier after she’s done gaping over the gold and something catches your eye. A worker, a feline monster resembling a puma, walks towards the back with a wire cage in their arms with a grim look on their face. 

“Excuse me!” you call for them, and they stop. You move towards the monster and get a good look in the cage. A Sans bitty, dressed in a grey, ragged shirt, and worn-out sports shorts. He had no socks or shoes, not even a coat or blanket, and he was shaking. The little bitty turned his skull and you saw red eye lights and a gold tooth. No doubts, he was an Edgy. 

“I’m sorry miss,” the puma monster carrying the cage gained your attention, “but he’s not for sale.” 

“Why not?” you ask, but you knew the answer. 

“He’s… well… he’s reached the return limit.” the monster said sadly with their ears pulled back. 

The Edgy shifted, you can see the sweat on his skull as he avoided looking at you. You know what that means. They have to put him down. 

“He’s had a troubling experience with owners,” you and the monster worker turn to see Mama Cry walk up, “no matter what, he seems to end up in the worst homes. He’s developed a biting habit as well, so it’s hard to get him adopted with that on his file.” 

You look over the Edgy, see his defeated slouch, and make up your mind. You throw an apologetic and begging look to the bitties you just got, who were still waiting by the register in the cart, then face Mama Cry. 

“Will you please let me take him?” you ask, lowering your shoulders and head. You add effect by putting puppy eyes to your face and add as much hope into them as possible. 

To your shock, Mama Cry looks relieved at your question, “I was hoping you would ask. But it costs more to take a bitty off-” 

You don’t let her finish and fish out two more pouches of gold, filled to the brim, “This will cover it, right?” 

Mama Cry only blinked this time and chuckled, “Yes it will.” 

In the next few minutes, you’re filling out paperwork and getting the Edgy some items. The group seems to accept him easily, Horrorswap Sans and Horrortale Papyrus work together to cheer him up, but the little guy is too shocked to properly talk. You understand, just a short while ago, he was on his way to the dreaded ‘backroom’. Now, he’s getting adopted and saved from death. 

“And sign your name here,” Mama Cry instructs with the last paper, “and we’ll be done.” 

You smirk as you write ‘Sarai Avec D.S.’ in your signature. It was a cover-up in case anyone who’s buddies with Ink ever finds it, but it’s also a little joke to yourself. 

‘Sarai’ means ‘princess’, which is what Nightmare loves to call you. ‘Avec’ is the cover name you choose that means ‘with’. And D.S. is short for Dark Sanses. So~, in the end, the name you write means Princess with Dark Sanses. 

You give the paper to Mama Cry and shake her hand, “Thank you for coming. And adopting these little ones.” she said to you and you smiled. 

The workers all waved you good-bye and you left, pushing the heavy cart out the door and down the sidewalk. 

The sun is setting over the mountains and you realize you’ve been shopping for longer than you thought. Pulling out your phone, you see Data had only sent you two texts. One to tell you he found the AU you fell in, and the other to let him know when you finished looking around. 

You push the cart into an alleyway when you see no one on the sidewalk and face the bitties in the cart, “Okay guys, I’m gonna call our ride home and you can meet one of my friends.” 

Nightmare, Error, Killer, Dust, Cross, and the Horrorfell bros all looked at you suspiciously while Horrortale Papyrus and Horrorsawp Sans perked up, “WE WOULD LOVE TO MEET YOUR FRIEND HUMAN AVEC!” they said together. So cute. 

You smile and call Data, who picks up instantly, “Heya, Princess, done with your shopping spree?” he winked at you. 

You roll your eyes, “I am not a princess, and yes, I finished looking around. Can you get us home?” 

“Sure thing-” he stops and looks at you, “wait a minute, us?” 

You smirk and turn the phone around so Data can see all the cure bitties hanging around the stuffed shopping cart, “Data, I picked up some little friends. Everyone, this is Data, one of my many friends back at the castle.” 

“HELLO!” the two sugar bitties greeted, “Sup?” Fresh waved, each with big smiles as the rest of the group have their greetings much quieter. 

**“Castle?”** you heard the Corrupted Nightmare question. 

You heard Data laugh, “Well, I’ll be. Can’t wait to see everyone’s faces.” 

Data’s portal opened in front of the alley wall and you turned the phone back to you as the little skeletons stared at it with awe and confusion. “Thanks, see you back at the base.” you say before ending the call and pocketing your phone. 

“Alright guys,” you say as you push the cart towards the portal, “ready to see your new home?” 

**“uh, human? what is that thing?”** Horrorfell Sans asked, looking nervously at the dark portal. 

“That is one of Data’s portals,” you explain, stopping in front of it, “and it’s our ticket back home.” 

**“PorTal?”** the Error bitty asked, **“aS In, to AnOthEr uniVeRse?”**

“Uh-huh!” you beam, “Hold on to the cart and say good-bye to your old homeworld.” 

“GOOD-BYE OLD WORLD THAT USED TO BE HOME!” Horrortale Pap waved to the alley behind you. 

“GOOD-BYE!” Horrorswap Blue cheered. 

**“hope ta neva see ya again!”** Horrorfell Sans surprisingly shouted. 

**“THIS PLACE WAS A WASTE OF TIME. LEAVING FOREVER IS AN ADEQUATE DECISION.”** Horrorfell Papyrus stated as if his own world was below him. Which you kinda expected. 

“guess movin’ out won’t be so bad.” the Dust bitty mumbles, but you hear it. 

“Wonder what it’ll be like?” the Cross thought out loud. You smile knowing he was in for a big surprise once he saw the gang. 

“New pad and a new universe? That’s pretty rad yo!” Fresh beamed. 

**“... guess it could be worse...”** you heard the Edgy whisper but said nothing. Only giving all your new friends a reassuring smile as you pushed the cart through the portal. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You adopted a lot of bitties! 
> 
> What will the gang think? 
> 
> Comment down below and share your thoughts!


	8. You Name

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait! Chapter 8 is uploaded!

As you step out of the portal, you see you’re right at the entrance to Nightmare’s castle. Guess that means you’re giving the bitties a good view of their new home. 

“Everyone,” you smile at the flabbergasted and speechless bitties, “this is Nightmare’s castle. Home to most Dark Sanses of the multiverse. And now, it’s your home too! What do ya think?” 

You were given silence at first before the Corrupted Nightmare spoke up, **“When you said castle, you really meant castle.”**

You laugh, “Well~, it could technically be seen as a mansion, but it has a throne room and dungeons, so~...” 

You heard a gasp and look down to see Underswap Sans has both hands on his cheekbones, “HUMAN AVEC! ARE YOU A REAL PRINCESS?!” 

“What? No, I’m-” 

“OH! YES, I REMEMBER DATA CALLING YOU THAT!” the sweet Horrortale Papy added. 

**“get adopted by a princess,”** Edgy thinks out loud, not believing anything, **“why not?”**

“Now hold on-” 

“would explain all the gold she paid for us with,” the mini-Dust commented, “and being ‘well-stocked’.” 

“Okay, but what I really meant was-” 

“Y/N!” is what catches everyone’s attention and a second later, Cross opens the double doors with more force than needed and tackles you into a hug. 

“Oh, thank the Angel, you’re alright!” you see Shears running down the hall and stop at the doorway. 

“Y/N’s back!” you hear Fresh shout before you see him run into the entrance hall and towards you, soon joining Cross in hugging you. 

“You act like I would have come back in pieces,” you comment, patting the backs of the skeletons in your arms, “I’m fine. I was on a surface world. Nothing bad happened. If something did, I would tell you. Besides, you guys have been training me! I can kick arse if I wanted to!” 

“not saying that you can’t,” you look up to see Killer standing next to Shears, leaning in one leg and looking smug, “but in case you haven’t noticed, most of us kinda get anxious if we’re not sure our ‘princess’ is safe.” 

You puff your cheeks, “I am not a prin-” 

“YOU ARE A PRINCESS! BROTHER, CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?! WE WERE ADOPTED BY A PRINCESS!” Horrortale Papy exclaimed while shaking his brother in the air. 

**“OF COURSE!”** the Horrorfell Papy raised his hands in exasperation, **“A PRINCESS! WHAT OTHER IMPOSSIBLE THINGS WILL HAPPEN NEXT?!”**

“... he looks just like me...” the Killertale bitty commented absently. 

“Yeah, and they look like us too.” the Cross bitty pointed to the normal-sized Cross and Fresh in your arms, who were now seeing the bitties. As was everyone else present. 

**“When Data said you found more friends,”** Nightmare appeared from the shadows, walking over to the cart of bitties and bitty items, **“he forgot to mention this** **_little_ ** **detail.”**

The Horror pun-loving brothers chuckled a bit with the Dust and Killer bitties while the Fresh and Cross giggled. The Error bitty and mini-Nightmare stared at the King of Nightmares in confusion and disbelief. The pun-hating Horror brothers cringed at the pun but still looked intrigued at the larger versions of their friends. 

You smile, slightly guilty and a bit smug as you gesture a hand towards the cart, “Welp, everyone, say ‘hello’ to your alternate counterparts!” 

* * *

“-and that,” you conclude, “is the current situation in the multiverse between the Light Sanes and the Dark Sanses.” 

Everyone had relocated to the dining room for a full explanation and all the bitties you brought were scattered throughout the table near their larger selves. Safe the Horrorswap and Horrorfell brothers, who were staying near the normal-sized Horrortale brothers: Horror and Blood. The little Edgy stayed close to you, growling a lot when someone just passed by you. You think it’s cute how he’s suddenly protective of you, guess some fanfictions were true. 

Everyone was dining on the cake you finished before you left as you explained the multiverse and the Dark Sanses to the bitties. Shears took it upon himself to make tea and walk around refilling everyone’s cups. Data watched and listened from his screen in the dining room, you couldn’t help but notice his smug expression as everyone was introduced earlier. 

The Nightmare bitty looked up at the Nightmare sitting next to him, **“So, you’re the leader of the Dark Sanses and you work with Error to spread fear and destroy AUs across the multiverse.”**

The King of Negativity grinned, **“Yup, it’s a talent.”**

The Error bitty turned to the destroyer when he was done with his cake, **“aNd yOu’Re thE oNLy onE tHat cAn deStrOy The AUs YoUr InK cReATes.”**

Error nodded but you lifted a finger and spoke up, “Actually, Error is one of few people in the multiverse that can destroy AUs. But he is the one with the most experience and one of the first to be created for that sole purpose.” 

Everyone looked at you and Error stared at you shocked. 

“What? Has Paper Crane not been born yet?” you ask, looking around. 

Error blinked, **“CAn’T SAy i’Ve hEArD oF HiM.”**

You frown, “Guess he hasn’t then.” and you really hoped you’d get to meet him too. You wonder when in the multiverse you are if some characters aren’t around. 

“Well,” you sigh, “I won’t talk about him too much. If he hasn’t made an appearance in the multiverse, it might be that I’m way ahead of you guys, time-wise.” 

**“yEs,”** Error agreed, **“tHat wiLL bE sAFer.”**

“HUMAN PRINCESS AVEC,” Horrorswap Sans spoke up, “I AM CONFUSED. YOU DID NOT MENTION YOURSELF DURING YOUR EXPLANATION.” 

You blink, “Well, that’s a lot more complicated. To summarize, I come from a world where all of you are fictional, made-up, and, essentially, created everyone in this multiverse. Everything here is a comic, fanfiction, or artwork in my world, so I know just about everything about everyone. Kind of. There are some things I’m clueless about and some gaps that aren’t filled. Anyway, I kinda showed up here and I have no idea how. We theorize whatever brought me to this multiverse may have been a traumatic experience, hence my memory being blank of the event. I’ve been living here since then.” 

“SO,” the Horrortale Papyrus bitty tilted his skull, “ARE YOU A PRINCESS IN YOUR WORLD?” 

You sighed, “No. That’s a nickname that _someone_ ,” you look pointedly at Nightmare, who’s throwing you a smug look, “hasn’t stopped calling me since I got here. And the others adopted it along the way.” 

Nightmare just raised a hand, smiling, **“Guilty as charged… Princess.”**

You groaned, “Am I ever going to be able to get you to stop calling me that?” 

**“Nope.”** Nightmare didn’t even hesitate. 

“Great~!” you sarcastically moaned, then sat up and addressed an important topic, “Welp, on the note of nicknames, the little guys are gonna need new ones since we have a case of doubles in the room.” 

“She got a point,” the Fresh bitty spoke up, “I mean, havin’ two ‘Fresh’s is da bomb! But,” he gestured the normal-sized monster Fresh and then to himself, “it can get confusin’.” 

“Then let’s start with you two,” you smile, having an idea already, “since there aren’t a lot of variants of ‘fresh’, how about we call you Rad? Short for ‘radical’.” 

The bitty beamed, “That’s _rad_ , yo!” 

You giggle as Blood groans with his bitty-self and the other pun-haters. 

“For the Horrors,” you point to the bitty Horrortale Sans and Papyrus, “how about Saint and Snack?” 

Saint blinked at you, “why saint?” 

You wink, “Because you’re _hole-y_.” 

Giggles erupted with a hint of groaning mixed in. This is getting fun. 

“AND WHY SNACK?” Snack asked you, looking confused. 

“A snack is a bit of food that tides you over when you’re hungry before mealtime,” you explain, smiling, “and you’re the kind of person that looks after others, especially when they’re hungry. So it suits you.” 

Blood grinned, lifting Snack in his hands, “THAT’S A PERFECT NAME FOR YOU, MINI-ME!” 

“YES!” Snack agreed, placing his hands on his hip bones and letting his scarf flap behind him, “IT IS FOR THE GREAT SNACK! I SHALL LIVE UP TO THE NAME!” 

“so cool.” Horror and Saint said in unison. 

You looked over to the Horrorswaps, “And for you guys, how about Treat for Sans and Cracker for Papyrus?” 

“TREAT?” “cracker?” the brothers asked together. 

“A treat is something sweet that brings happiness to people who eat it. And a cracker is a simple but tasty food full of holes, and it’s great with honey.” 

Cracker shrugged with a smile while Treat beamed, getting little stars for eye lights, “I LOVE IT!” 

Five down, eight to go. 

You look over to the Horrorfell brothers and give them a smile paired with puppy eyes, “Can I call you Loganberry and Cranberry? We can call you Logan and Cran for short.” 

Logan scoffed, **“WHY WOULD YOU ADDRESS ME AS A FRUIT?”**

You smirk a bit, “Because~, a loganberry is the superior of raspberries and blackberries together, known to be bigger and better.” 

You were exaggerating a bit, it was actually a hybrid of the two berries, but it had an amazing flavor that you loved at first try. Not that Logan needed to know. 

Logan turned his skull, trying to make his small, faint blush unnoticed, **“I SHALL ACCEPT IT, BUT ONLY BECAUSE YOU COULDN’T POSSIBLY THINK OF A BETTER NAME.”**

You smiled happily and sang, “Thank you, Logan~!” 

Logan huffed and marched over to a platter of cookies Shears had put down as Cran looked up at you, raising a bone brow, **“should i ask?”**

You tilt your head and smile, “A cranberry is a small, plump, red, superfood with high nutritional value and hidden holes inside.” 

Cran blinked, then laughed, **“you’re somethin’ else, princess.”**

You frowned and he winked at you before teleporting to Logan. Guess you’ll be hearing that nickname more often now. 

You shake your head then smile towards the Killers, looking hopeful towards the bitty, “What about Slayer for you?” 

Slayer smirked and shrugged, “sure, that’s fine, princess.” 

You roll your eyes but smile, you have a feeling none of the bitties are ever going to let that name go. 

“And for the little Dust,” you look in his direction, “how’s Soot sound?” 

Dust and Soot seemed intrigued, “any reasons why?” Soot asked. 

The corner of your lip turns up as you say, “Soot is the more dangerous version of dust, given it can even be deadly in the smallest amounts.” 

Soot and Dust chuckled, “oh, yeah,” Dust smiled, “that’s perfect.” 

Happy, you give the Crosses your attention, absently noting that the two are finishing the last of the chocolate chip cookies together. 

“For tiny Cross, what do you think of X?” you ask. 

“Like the letter?” X questioned. 

“Yup,” you nod, playfully smirking, “X is a symbol of danger. And something tells me our chocolate supply is in trouble.” 

X and Cross look at the cookie bits in their hands and slowly move them behind their backs, “What do you mean?” they not so innocently ask. 

You giggle then face the Errors, “For you,” you point to the bitty, “I’m thinking… Glitch.” 

Glitch blinks and shrugs, **“fiNe bY Me.”**

You take that as a win, and look down at the little Nightmare, “Night Terror would suit you well.” 

Nightmare chuckles as he looks down at Night Terror, **“Tiny Terror is more like it.”**

Night Terror uses a tentacle to slap Nightmare’s arm, which just makes the King of Negativity laugh. 

“And that,” you look down by your arms, where the Edgy is now looking at you, “just leaves you.” 

The Edgy shrugged, **“i just went by edgy. don’ need anythin’ special.”**

You cringe a bit, “Yeah~, no. When I hear any variant of ‘Edge’ my mind thinks of Underfell Papyrus.” 

Shears walked over, making the Edgy growl, and refilled your teacup, “Well, what did you have in mind for the sharp little man?” 

You ponder, what would you name an Edgy bitty without using names that belonged to other Sanses? Well~, if you ever got an Edgy for a bitty, his name could have to be different. Nothing complex, something suitable, but a little more original. 

You glanced over the bitty in question, he was no bigger than your own hand, had blood-red eye lights, and teeth that looked like they’d cut your fingers off in one bite. Wait… sharp… cut… 

“Would you consider… Blade?” 

Blade blinked, **“blade?”**

You nod, “A cutting edge, generally found on dangerous objects people should be careful with. Like weapons.” 

Blade blinked, gained a faint blush, then turned away and mumbled, **“whatever. call me what ya want.”**

And you found the winning name. 

“Great!” you clap your hands, “Now that that’s out of the way, let’s pick out a place to set up your bitty house. A castle in a castle! This is going to be fun!” 

* * *

Setting up the bitty castle was fun. 

The bitties decided to have their own room set up across the hall from yours and everything in it was cleared out. The whole room was turned into a bitty playroom modeled after a child’s dream. 

A large center table held the bitty castle while the closet was converted into a private jungle gym with three levels that only bitties could play in. 

The private bathroom was adjusted to suit the bitties’ needs to their size, the bathtub was turned into a twenty bitty-sized foot deep pool with levels that lessened to three centimeters. 

A large table was transformed into a sparring arena in the far left corner, complete with a bleacher. 

A bitty-sized trampoline park was put in the far right corner. 

An obstacle course in the closer right corner from the door. 

And a skating park, complete with personalized bitty-sized skateboards, was put in the closest left corner from the door. 

The gang had gone on their own ‘shopping spree’ and came back with items that were turned into these areas. You’re still amazed at how quickly they worked. 

The jewel of everything, in your opinion, is the ‘treehouses’ the gang made and set up in the trees closest to the garden. Each made with things each bitty liked and set up as they wished. They were also hidden from plain sight, so they doubled as adequate hideouts in the event of an intruder. 

Snack, Treat, X, Rad, and Logan were the happiest and pleased with everything while the others were still wrapping their skulls around it. 

It makes sense to you. After all, they were abused for a long time, set into the center with no true hope of finding a good home or homes. And suddenly, you pop up, adopt all of them at once, and they get everything they could ever want with no expectations or consequences. 

Well, other than likely being hated by everyone in the multiverse if anyone ever found out, or taken away in hopes of ‘turning them back to the good side’. Yeah, chances of that happening are the same as you meeting Underfell Asgore in the Underground and surviving. Ink and Dream will never even catch a glimpse of them if it’s the last thing you do. 

Surprisingly, the bitties with doubles preferred to sleep with their bigger selves rather than the bitty castle rooms, if they could. Other times, like when the gang had to work overnight, they slept in the castle or with you. 

Blade in particular never slept in his room. He was always waiting on your bed when you finished getting ready for the night in the bathroom and he always slept on you. You didn’t mind as long as he never saw you naked and it was honestly cute to see him sleep. 

With the bitties, there was never time to be alone in the castle. There was never a dull moment. The bitties got into everything and anything. 

Snack, Treat, and Logan, in particular, loved to help you out in the kitchen. 

Rad skateboarded on everything he could fit on and often used his board as transportation around the castle. 

Glitch made little kitting and croquette projects and often left them in random places. 

Night Terror, often called Terror for short, did regular patrols around the castle and check-ins on everyone at a scheduled time. 

Blade tended to stay on your shoulder and hardly leave your sight or presence. 

X, Soot, and Slayer trained, sparring whenever and wherever they were able. The same went for the Horror lazy-bones when they weren’t watching you and their brothers in the kitchen. 

You suspect the gang may have asked the bitties to keep an eye socket on you. Knowing them, they probably thought of the little guys as a ‘first line of defense’ or something. 

You didn’t mind, much, you were happy. 

Not only were you living a dream come true, but you were also surrounded by friends practically all the time. 

However, all this wasn’t enough to stop your mind from wondering, why in the multiverse are you even around to begin with? 

Oh well, guess it was one of those ‘live in the moment’ type situations. 

Now, where did you see that recipe for a triple chocolate mousse? 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, hey, hey! Guess which fanfiction writer got a [Tumblr](https://sar61sanz6.tumblr.com/) account and a Ko-fi page! 
> 
> After finding out they cost nothing, (seriously, I thought you needed to do a monthly payment for membership) I got them up and set as fast as I could. They're not the best, but please share what you think and show your support. 
> 
> See ya'll next time!


	9. You... Oh, Hell

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO~ sorry for that wait! 
> 
> Here it is, chapter 9 and all ten pages worth of Underhell research!

“IS IT READY YET?!” 

“CAN WE TRY IT FIRST?!” 

**“I DEMAND TO KNOW THE PROGRESS OF THE CULINARY SWEETS!”**

You sigh and look over to your kitchen helpers who just finished wiping down the counter as you finished the last of the dishes. 

“Guys, there’s just five more minutes on the timer, have a little patience. And yes, since the guys are busy, you will be the first to try them out.” 

Today was a ‘cheat day’ as you’d taken to calling them. It was a day when you made two desserts instead of one. Since the gang’s numbers increased a bit, one dessert alone sometimes wasn’t enough. So, you started making two once a week. 

This time, you and your little friends decided on a chocolate flan cake, and blueberry chocolate layered cake. The smell of them was heavenly and the tiny housemates were getting anxious. 

“ya don’t have ta keep askin’ her every five minutes!” Blade growled from your shoulder. 

And just like that, Logan and Blade get into another argument over Logan’s demanding personality and habits against Blade’s adorable lack of patience and defense of your time. While the Edgy was less demanding than Logan, the Horrorfell bitty tended to come off as overly-controlling at times. Hence why the secretly protective bitty got aggravated whenever the Fell Papyrus seemed to be bossy. In the end, the two tended to get at it every chance they got. 

After three weeks of living like this, you get used to the little spats. And why would you get mad? It was adorable! 

While two of the bitties got into a cute little shouting match, you finished setting the table for the cakes and frosting the blueberry layered cake. Snack and Treat helped, also keeping out of the argument between the Edgy and Boss. 

By the time the red and black themed bitties were finally catching their breath after shouting, you and your other kitchen helpers finished setting the cakes. 

The chocolate flan cake was drizzled in caramel sauce on a black glass pedestal with crystal charms dangling off the bottom of the stand. The blueberry chocolate layered cake was frosted with blueberry frosting and decorated with chocolate-covered blueberries, sitting proudly on a midnight blue glass stand. 

“Okay guys,” you look over the bitties, “what do you want to try first?” 

“FLAN CAKE!” 

“BLUEBERRY!” 

**“CHOCOLATE FLAN!”**

**“i’ll try the da blue one first.”**

You happily plate a slice of the flan cake for Snack and Logan to share and set another plate of blueberry cake for Blade and Treat to enjoy. But Blade doesn’t budge from your shoulder so you get a spoon and scoop up a bit for him to reach. 

“IT’S SO GOOD!” Treat beams as he devours little bits of the blue cake. 

Snack nods enthusiastically, “THEY ARE CULINARY MASTERPIECES!” 

**“THIS REACHES MY STANDERS OF HIGH-QUALITY DESSERT.”** Logan stated plainly but ate his flan cake a bit vigorously. 

Blade mumbles his liking as his mouth is full of blueberry chocolate goodness and you smile widely. 

“Glad they came out okay. Flan isn’t easy to make and fruit-flavored cakes can go wrong easily when cooking.” 

You noticed Blade left half the spoon full of cake and was glancing at you and the utensil a bit. Getting the message, you try the dessert and love it. 

“Oh, yeah, we’re definitely making this again.” 

**“OR PERHAPS IT WOULD BE BETTER WITH LOGANBERRIES AS THEY ARE THE SUPERIOR FRUIT.”** Logan stated, raising his skull. 

You smiled knowing he was just saying that to gloat on his own name’s reputation. But the idea is tempting. 

“I’ll see if I can find a recipe for loganberry cake,” you promise, “worse case if I don’t find one we can experiment with a standard fruit cake recipe and work on our own from there.” 

Logan gains an expression of deep thought and internal debate before nodding firmly and returning to his dessert. 

What goes on in that sweet bitty’s skull, you’ll probably never know. 

Just as you set the utensil down and prepare to gather the now empty dishes, you feel it again. 

The center of your chest is twisting inside, it’s not unbearable but it is uncomfortably noticeable. You stop and bring a hand over your chest to rub it a bit, bringing no relief to the strange sensation. This does not go unnoticed by your little friends. 

“ARE YOU ALRIGHT, PRINCESS AVEC?” Snack askes with a concerned expression. 

“ARE YOU IN PAIN? SHOULD WE CALL DATA?” Treat worriedly questions. 

You raise both your hands up in a calming motion, “No, no, I’m fine. I think I’m about to teleport again.” 

**“like when ya gotta our old universe and shears’ place?”** Blade asks as your mind starts to drift and fuzz, lulling you to a sleepy state. 

“Yeah, mm,” you mummer as your eyes close, “just, gimme a… sec...” 

As you lose consciousness you wonder if the last two times had taken this long to knock you out. Was it because you needed to reassure your bitty friends? You hear them call worriedly and Blade tries to keep you awake but black soon conquers your vision and mind. Despite feeling oddly energized you still clock out, even after struggling to keep your eyes open. 

Everything should be fine though. This was happening for a reason. You don’t completely know that reason, but you keep getting new friends so it’s not all bad. 

* * *

You regained consciousness and heard two voices, both thankfully familiar. 

**“-ey, come on! wake up! she ain’t movin’ at all!”**

“Figured. She takes a few minutes ta wake up from teleporting for some reason. Give her a little bit more time.” 

**“i’ve given her twenty minutes, tops! how much longer are we talkin’ here?!”**

“Ten seconds,” you answer before you groggily open your eyelids, seeing cavern rocks, tall pine trees, and snow, “gimme ten ta, ya know, get the weird portal sleep out.” 

**“yer awake!”** you feel tiny bitty claws try to wrap around your neck, **“don’t scare me like that!”**

You bring one hand to cup the bitty as you sit up slowly, “Sorry, this just happens when I go somewhere new.” you blink as a thought occurs to you, “But this is the first time someone else came with me. Are you okay? Do you know what happened after I blacked out?” 

Blade nods into your skin, **“yeah, some black circle popped up under ya as ya fainted. then we dropped for about five ‘er ten minutes, hard ta tell. it was all black and dark and endless. then another circle popped under us in the black place and we dropped here.”**

“Huh,” the other voice, Data, spoke up, “I’m takin’ note of that. We’re gonna talk more about this at the next meeting.” 

You look around and find your phone next to your side and grab it so you and Data can see each other. 

“Sounds like a good idea. How are the gang doing?” you ask. 

“Almost done with their work,” Data answers easily, “Error just has a couple more AUs ta handle, copies apparently, and they’ll be back to the base in a couple of hours if Squid and Dream don’t rain on their parade. Fresh and Shears found some nice things during their raids they want ta show ya. Oh, and Nightmare emptied a few banks of their gold and cash, so just a heads up.” the skeleton smugly smirked and you knew he probably reminded the leader of your emergency currency. Likely bringing up how much the bitties likely cost plus all the things you bought for them. 

You sigh with a fond smile, “Well not like I can stop him now.” you glance around, verifying the subconscious suspicions of your location, “Looks like I’m in a Snowdin, Underground, and in the middle of the woods. No one in sight but the air is tense and a bit down. I might be in a Fell AU, or somewhere similar.” 

Data became a bit stiff, “Do ya think you’re in danger?” 

You think for a second before shaking your head, “No, there’s no dust in sight, and despite the atmosphere, I don’t feel danger, just… gloom? Yeah, it feels like hopelessness. I think I’ll be okay.” 

Data’s smile was strained, “Doesn’t make me feel all that better, but I’ll trust your judgment for now. I’m already searching your position and narrowing it down to Non-Surface AUs, but like last time, it’ll take a bit.” 

“I’ll be okay,” you say as you stand up and help Blade settle on your shoulder, “the gang’s been training me, remember? Besides, I need to find out why I’m here. These portals can’t be happening for no reason and I need to get a clue about what’s been going on.” 

“Ya got a point,” Data resigned, “but keep in mind ya can’t go off gettin’ yourself in danger. We really care about ya, princess.” 

The sentiment touches your heart and soul, why are these skeletons so sweet? What did you do to deserve this? 

“I’ll remember,” you smile, “trust me, the second my life looks to be in danger, I’ll call. If I can't, Blade will.” 

Said bitty nodded, and Data seemed a bit reassured, “OK, take care then.” 

“Will do,” you wave at the screen, “tell the others I’m fine and we’ll meet back at the castle.” 

Data gave a cocky salute, “Yes ma’am.” 

You huff as the call ends and pocket your phone, “Well Blade, looks like we goin’ on a little adventure. Ready for the great unknown?” 

**“eh,”** the Edgy grumbled, **“i guess.”**

You chuckle and walk between the forest trees, heading towards what looked like a clearing between the trunks. 

Once you see a path you quickly hide most of your form behind a tree and look around. Despite being confident this universe was more hopeless than murderous, it was better to be cautious and safe than sorry. 

Seeing no one in sight, you head into the center of the path and try to determine where you were. You wish you’d paid better attention to the little details of the pixilated Underground maps, so much snow and trees but no signs pointing your direction. Both sides of the path looked identical to a T. 

“Okay,” you glance at Blade, “I have no clues where we are, so which way should we chance? Left or right?” 

Blade glanced around then shrugged, **“left maybe?”**

“Left it is!” you march onward, “let’s see where it leads us.” 

You walk some more until you see something up ahead, sighing in relief when you see the familiar door. 

“Okay, so we chanced the wrong way. That’s okay, cause just beyond this path should be Sans’ sentry station,” you explain to your bitty passenger, pointing in the other direction, “and we’ll get a better idea of which alternate universe we landed in.” 

“alternate universe, eh?” a voice spoke up behind you, “never thought i’d hear that from a human.” 

You tense and turn around slowly as Blade growls at the familiar voice. Your eyes widen when you see just who it is. 

If the purple eye light wasn’t enough of a clue, the tattered, worn, red jacket was. Topped with the tired expression, greyish white t-shirt, black slippers, and shorts, you knew exactly the skeleton you were facing. 

“Underhell,” you breathe in shock, “we’re in Underhell.” 

Sans bitterly smirked, “well, you’re underground, and it is hell. so~” 

“Oh! No, no!” you wave your hands frantically, “That’s not what I meant! You see, this- your universe is titled Underhell. It’s a bit of a shock for me.” 

Understatement, you never found any comics on the AU and fanfictions were short in numbers compared to more popular AUs. Underhell always made you a bit sad since this particular AU was one of the rare few where Sans didn’t have a Papyrus or a brother. It was always sad to see an AU with one brother but not the other, worse when the AU was made that way. Maybe that’s why it never got the attention it deserved. 

The few fanart pictures you could find on the AU were also few in numbers but just encouraged your sadness. Some in particular displayed utter misery and others just made the poor Sans look unhinged. 

But since it never got an official comic or fanfic, you always wondered if it was a real, whole AU. Now that Underhell Sans was standing in front of you, you wonder if other not-so-known, comic-or-fanfiction-less AUs were also around. You kinda want to meet Fresh!Ink. 

Then again, maybe you should have expected this AU to exist, after all, Tailoredtale was also one of those less known AUs. 

Underhell Sans looked intrigued, “universe, eh? care ta elaborate on that?” he asked with a slightly scary smirk. 

**“she doesn’t have ta tell ya anythin’!”** Blade defensively screeched on your shoulder, growling at the larger monster, **“back off before i give ya a bad time!”**

The larger Sans blinked a bit surprised, not noticing Blade until he spoke up for you. The look was gone in a flash and he seemed even more interested in everything as he looked Blade over from skull to phalanges. 

“heh, a tiny me,” the skeleton chuckled a bit, “was not expecting that. he from your universe?” 

You chuckle as you carefully reach for Blade and cup him to your chest, using a finger to gingerly rub the back of his skull in reassurance. It worked to calm your bitty friend down as he stopped growling so loud but kept his guard up and gazed wearily at Underhell Sans. 

“No,” you smile warmly, “Blade here is an Edgy bitty from a Bitty Universe, where some monsters are naturally this size. They make great companions and friends, though Blade’s particular kind is known to be a bit protective, sorry about that.” 

Underhell Sans smiled with a tilt of his skull, “none taken, his behavior is kinda similar to the norm around here.” 

You flinch a bit, “Yeah, I figured that with what I know of your universe. My name’s Y/N, I also go by Avec. To answer your first question, the multiverse theory is true. I’m uh, well I’m not really a part of the multiverse. It’s kinda a long story.” 

Underhell Sans raised a bone brow then shrugged, “i got time.” 

You take a deep breath, move Blade back to your shoulder, and begin. “So, basically the multiverse runs on balance, yin and yang, life and death, creation and destruction. It’s pretty obvious and basic stuff that everyone should know about. Unfortunately, there are such things as naive and blind people. Ink, the creator, and protector of all AUs, is pretty much stupid and brain dead and thinks the multiverse is endless and unlimited when in reality, there is a limit to how many AUs can fit. He makes pointless copies and AUs with no real reason for existing. Like AUs where pigs fly or places made only of gingerbread or even universes where the monsters and/or people suffer endlessly with no hope of it ending. Of course, anywhere where a person has lost all hope and gone insane is seen as a ‘bad’ place and is treated like, pardon my language, shit. Then the people of the multiverse that represent the other half, the negative, death, and destruction side of the cycle, are seen by the majority of the multiverse as evil incarnates. Error is the destroyer of AUs is the opposite of Ink the creator, and because Ink creates with no common sense and ‘stop’ isn’t in his dictionary, Error is run ragged trying to balance out all the over-creation, and is literally the only person able to keep the AUs from touching each other and setting off a chain reaction that could potentially destroy the multiverse as we know it.” 

You pause, giving the wide eye socketed skeleton in front of you to process the first and most important part of your explanation. Once he relaxes a bit and slowly nods his skull, you continue. 

“With that in mind, you should know that I come from a world where Undertale, the original AU, is a video game. The people of my world are only human, and monsters are made-up creatures meant to scare or entertain younger generations. Thus, one such creation came to be, Undertale the video game!” 

You do a little jazz hands move, earning a small, yet nervous, chuckle from the red-clad skeleton. 

“The game consists of three choices, pacifist, neutral, and genocide. The concept is that the players, the people of my world, can choose which path they want to play. Pacifist means they chose a calm, peaceful path to the ending. Neutral is often where people do what they want depending on their mood, often leading to both good friendly choices and random killings at the same time. And genocide, well, it’s the path of the complete dusting of all monsters in the underground.” 

The tall Sans in front of you tenses again and loses his eye lights. 

“Yeah~” you nod and avert your eyes, “some people in my world kinda like the whole ‘kill everything’ concept, so that came to be.” 

You give him a minute, then go on, “After the game became popular, fans made up fan stories and fan comics, which became sort-of the original alternate universes to us. Eventually, people made so many different variants of the game’s story that a multiverse of possibilities existed. Unknown to us, all that actually became real worlds with real people that weren’t just made up in our heads, and presto! The Undertale multiverse you exist in was born. Strangely.” 

You wait a few minutes in silence, watching Sans slowly relax at a snail’s pace as Blade messes with a strand of your hair. 

“so,” Underhell Sans spoke up, “if you’re from the world that made our multiverse, how did ya get here?” 

You sigh and shrug, “Honestly, that’s a question me and my friends have been wondering for a while. You see, one day I was in college, leaving for my next class, and then I woke up in Nightmare’s castle with the rest of his gang. Apparently, I had somehow fallen through a portal and ended up in their living room. My soul, as it turns out, is not exactly normal, has a lot of fractures for some reason I can not remember, and somehow I’ve been portal-ing to alternate universes at random ever since I settled in.” 

Sans blinked a bit, “nightmare? who’s that?” 

“Oh!” you hit your forehead, “Forgot to mention that. See, Nightmare is the King of Negativity, as well as the guardian of nightmares and negative emotions. In his home universe, he and his twin brother Dream, were protectors of a tree that grew two types of apples. The golden ones represented dreams and positive emotions, while the black ones were the embodiment of nightmares and negative emotions. The residence of that AU however, became a large problem. They favored Dream and his apples for obvious reasons, but as any mortal being, they hated nightmares and negative feelings, so they took it out on Nightmare. Dream, being naive and blindly seeing only the good in everyone around him, was ignorant of this until it was too late. By the time Nightmare had had enough, he had tried caring for the golden apples to prove himself just as good and important as his brother and accidentally killed most of the tree’s golden apples. Then he ended up eating all the black apples he could and went mad, insane some say, and ended up killing the tree, his AU, and turning Dream to stone in their fight. Dream eventually got out, ended up forcing Nightmare to flee into the multiverse, and over time, he regained his thoughts and cleared his mind. And as the guardian of negative emotions and nightmares, he could locate others with intense feelings. That led him to find other Sanses from pretty horrible AUs and forming his gang of Dark Sanses. He and Error eventually met and became allies, along with Fresh, and all of them are the main physical embodiments of all evil, as seen by the Star Sanses, which is Ink’s team of good guys and ‘heroes’, as well as the rest of the multiverse who listens to everything that spills out of Ink’s mouth without question.” 

Underfell Sans huffs a chuckle, “heh! sounds like a lot of me’s are real numbskulls.” 

You giggle, “Oh~! You have NO idea. Pray you never meet most of them.” 

The skeleton monster tilted his skull a bit in curiosity, “so, what makes my world different, eh?” 

You freeze, kinda hating what you had to admit. 

“Well… uh… that’s kinda the sad thing about your universe.” you admit. 

He raises a bone brow, “yeah?” 

You take a deep breath, “You see, in most universes, you’re paired with another skeleton, Papyrus. Most universe have him as your brother, in a rare few he’s your son, in some your not related at all but are friends or associates, and then… there’s places were… he doesn’t exist. Like here.” 

Once again, Sans’ eye lights go dark. 

“... i… my counterparts get ta have a brother?” he asks in a very low voice. 

You nod, “Yeah, most of them do. In a way, Papyrus is a fundamental part of your character, er, well, personality, and traits. For a lot of Sanses, Papyrus is everything to them. But… the way your universe was made, you didn’t get a brother. Or a knock-knock joke friend. Unless you do know someone how answers the door here.” you tumb at the tall door behind you as he looks over your shoulder. 

“na,” Sans shakes his skull, “ain’t nobody gone in or come out of there, much less answer a good knock-knock joke.” 

You cringe a bit, “Yeah, sorry. The person that designed your world pretty much made it to where you have few to no friends. It puts on a whole new… er… well it made your world a different kind of miserable. Not ‘kill or be killed’ miserable like Underfell, or ‘starving to the point of cannibalism’ like Horrortale, or ‘go insane and kill everyone’ miserable like Killertale and Dusttale, just… lonely.” 

Underhell Sans lost his eye lights… again, and you gave him time to settle everything going on in his skull. After all, the truth of the multiverse is not something easily taken in. But at least it’s better than getting spoon-fed delusions of perfection from Ink. 

“... Wanna sit down?” you ask after a few minutes of silence. 

The universe’s Sans chuckles, “yeah… this is… a lot ta take in.” 

You sigh and fall cross-legged into the snow, patting the snow-covered ground next to you, “Tell me about it big guy.” 

Sans huffs and sits down next to you, taking a moment before answering, “... i’ve gone my whole life thinkin’ i got the shortest end of the stick and the worst life. now, you show up and tell me it’s fact and at the same time, some got it worse than i do. not ta mention the multiverse theory is real and there are living embodiments of life and death, the majority opinion of the less-than-liked side is fueled by a moron, and whole worlds have ta be destroyed because one skeleton can’t give balance a brake.” 

You nod as Blade speaks up, **“yeah, that sums everythin’ up.”**

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you like this, and curse you Grammarly Sans' tend to speak in lowercase, stop correcting me! 
> 
> Anyone else out there heard of Underhell? Let me know in the comments!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Don't forget to comment down below!


End file.
